Backgrounder: Timeline of maritime delimitation dispute between Timor-Leste, Australia

Timor-Leste has launched compulsory conciliation proceedings under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in a bid to secure a permanent solution to its maritime border dispute with Australia.

Canberra has refused to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with Dili and argued that the conciliation commission under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has no jurisdiction.

A timeline of major developments in the dispute is as follows.

1972:

Australia and Indonesia completed their maritime border demarcation in the Timor Sea except the part concerning Timor-Leste, which was then under Portugal's colonial rule. The colonizer opposed the demarcation.

1989:

Australia and Indonesia, which occupied Timor-Leste from 1975 to 1999 after the Portuguese colonial rule, signed what is known as the Timor Gap Treaty for joint exploitation of petroleum resources in a part of the Timor Sea seabed which was claimed by both sides.

1997:

Australia and Indonesia signed the Australia-Indonesia Maritime Delimitation Treaty in Perth to extend the western segment of the seabed boundary to its termination point in the Indian Ocean. The treaty has not been ratified yet.

2002:

On its Independence Day on May 20, Timor-Leste signed the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia for joint petroleum exploration in the Timor Sea. As an independent sovereign nation, Timor-Leste refuses to recognize the 1989 and 1997 treaties signed between Australia and Indonesia.

On the eve of Timor-Leste's independence, Australia cunningly excluded itself from the compulsory settlement of maritime boundary disputes at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and under the UNCLOS.

2006:

Timor-Leste and Australia signed a treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which provides for an equal distribution of revenues from the disputed Greater Sunrise oil and gas deposits, a joint development area in the Timor Sea.

The treaty also establishes a 50-year moratorium on claims to sovereign rights and demarcation of maritime boundaries.

2013:

In March, Timor-Leste initiated an arbitration over the validity of the 2006 CMATS treaty at the PCA, following revelations that Australian agents, posing as aid workers, bugged Timor-Leste's cabinet room and gained unfair advantages in the negotiation process that led to the 2006 treaty.

Australian agents raided the office in suburban Canberra of a lawyer representing Dili in the PCA case and seized a trove of documents. The lawyer is a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer.

2014:

Timor-Leste took Australia to the ICJ, demanding that Australia return sensitive documents.

The ICJ ordered Canberra not to interfere with Dili's legal communications.

2015:

Timor-Leste officially dropped its spying case against Australia before the ICJ, after Canberra had given back the documents.

2016:

In March, more than 1,000 people gathered outside the Australian embassy in Dili, protesting Canberra's refusal to engage in bilateral maritime boundary talks.

In April, Timor-Leste initiated a compulsory conciliation process in the PCA.

On Aug. 29, the conciliation commission held an opening session of the compulsory conciliation in The Hague. Endi