Treaty On Certain Maritime Arrangements In The Timor Sea
Officially known as the Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), the treaty provides for the equal distribution of revenue derived from the disputed Greater Sunrise oil and gas field between Australia and East Timor. The field is located in the Timor Gap where Australia and East Timor have overlapping claims over the continental shelf or seabed. Prior to the treaty, East Timor would only have received about 18% of the revenue from the field.
CMATS also puts on hold the right by both countries to claim sovereign rights, discuss maritime boundaries or engage in any legal process in relation to maritime boundaries or territorial jurisdiction for 50 years which is the duration the treaty is in effect.
CMATS is one of three treaties concerning the exploitation of gas and petroleum in the Timor Gap and is to be "read together" with the other two treaties, namely the Timor Sea Treaty of 2002 and the Sunrise International Unitization Agreement (Sunrise UIA) of 2003.
CMATS was signed in Sydney on January 12, 2006 by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and his East Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta. It came into force on February 23, 2007 with the exchange of notes in Dili, East Timor. The East Timor parliament had ratified the treaty while Alexander Downer invoked the national interest exemption to fast-track ratification at the Australian Parliament.
Read more about Treaty On Certain Maritime Arrangements In The Timor Sea: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words treaty, arrangements and/or sea:
“It is accordance with our determination to refrain from aggression and build up a sentiment and practice among nations more favorable to peace ... that we have incurred the consent of fourteen important nations to the negotiation of a treaty condemning recourse to war, renouncing it as an instrument of national policy.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Autonomy means women defining themselves and the values by which they will live, and beginning to think of institutional arrangements which will order their environment in line with their needs.... Autonomy means moving out from a world in which one is born to marginality, to a past without meaning, and a future determined by others—into a world in which one acts and chooses, aware of a meaningful past and free to shape one’s future.”
—Gerda Lerner (b. 1920)
“There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics—none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)