Signing Ceremony for Treaty on Maritime Boundaries between Timor-Leste and Australia

Julie Bishop (front right), Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira (front left), Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister for the Delimitation of Borders of Timor-Leste, sign the Treaty on Maritime Boundaries between Timor-Leste and Australia, as Secretary-General António Guterres (back left) and Peter Taksøe-Jensen, Chair of the Conciliation Commission, look on.
The new maritime boundary treaty between Timor-Leste and Australia represents the success of the first-ever reconciliation proceedings undertaken pursuant to Annex V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). The governments of Timor-Leste and Australia have indicated that the treaty marks the end of a long dispute between friends, and thus heralds a significant and historic milestone for the pacific settlement of disputes between States.