149 Current Legal Developments Australia/Indonesia Proposed
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Current Legal Developments Australia/Indonesia Proposed Establishment of a Zone of Co-operation in the "Timor Gap" After talks in Jakarta on 25 October 1988 the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Gareth Evans, and the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, issued the following statement on the proposed establishment of a Zone of Co-operation in the area known as the "Timor Gap" between the Indone- sian province of East Timor and Northern Australia. As the statement, which is reproduced below, makes clear, the two Ministers hoped that the agreement would be concluded within a year. Its establishment would constitute an interim or provisional agreement until a formal agreement deli- miting the Continental shelf boundary between the two states can be concluded. A sketch map of the proposed Zone of Co-operation is reproduced at Figure I. Appendix Text of the Australian/Indonesian Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Zone of Co-operation in the "Timor Gap" 1. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia took note of the result of the Ninth Meeting of Senior Officials of Indonesia and Australia on the delimitation of continental shelf boundaries between the two countries, held in Jakarta on 3-4 September 1988. The two Ministers stu- died carefully the recommendation of the Meeting on the establishment of a Zone of Co- operation in the area between the Indonesian Province of East Timor and Northern Austra- lia (the "Timor Gap") for co-operation in petroleum exploration and exploitation, and the basic principles to govern the Zone, to be elaborated in a comprehensive Agreement. The recommended Zone of Co-operation will constitute a provisional arrangement pending agreement on the delimitation of a permanent continental shelf boundary. 2. The two Ministers hereby announce their Governments' endorsement to the recommen- dation of the Meeting and agreed that appropriate steps will be taken for the purpose of ela- borating a comprehensive Agreement on the Zone of Co-operation. The two Ministers expressed their desire that such an agreement should be concluded between the two coun- tries within one year. 3. The Zone of Co-operation will be delineated in the northern side by a simplified bathy- metric axis line, in the southern side by the 200 nautical mile line measured from the Indone- sian archipelagic baselines, and in the eastern side and western side by equidistance lines. The establishment of the Zone and its delineation will not prejudice the respective positions 149 150 Figure 1 Zone of Co-operation .