ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the importance of settling Timor-Leste’s international limits and boundaries before reviewing progress in relation to land boundary delimitation and demarcation. It highlights progress and challenges in the settlement of Timor-Leste’s international limits and boundaries. Since Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002, the issue of settling Timor-Leste’s international limits and boundaries, both on land and sea, has been a recurrent point of concern friction between Timor-Leste and its neighbours, Australia and Indonesia. The settlement of Timor-Leste’s international limits and boundaries can be considered to be fundamental to the country’s sovereignty and security, as well as its long-term economic and development prospects. Indonesia’s actions resulted in widespread international condemnation including several UN resolutions calling for Timor-Leste’s population to be afforded the right of self-determination. The lateral continental shelf boundary lines delimited between Australia and Timor-Leste depart significantly from the lateral limits of the Joint Petroleum Development Area, in favour of Timor-Leste.
