Timor-Leste says it will halt bid to overturn 2006 treaty on crucial gas field if Australia admits negotiators were bugged

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Amid the furore over allegations of spying on Indonesia's leaders, Timor-Leste has repeated claims that Australia bugged its leaders during delicate negotiations on the Timor Sea resources treaty in 2004.

Timor-Leste is pursuing international arbitration to have the 2006 treaty overturned, a process it launched last December after the Australian government failed to respond to the bugging claims.

But it says it would halt this process if the Australian government gave a detailed response to their spying allegations.

Agio Pereira, president of Timor-Leste's council of ministers, said his country's development depended on revenue from the Timor Sea Greater Sunrise gas field.

"When you bug the negotiation team's evaluation of the impact of their negotiations, you do have an advantage. It's more than unfair," he told ABC television on Wednesday.

"It actually creates incredible disadvantage to the other side."

The former foreign minister Alexander Downer accused Timor-Leste of an opportunistic publicity stunt by renewing its claims.

Downer said it was riding on the back of Australia's diplomatic tensions with Indonesia, which stem from more recent spying allegations.

"They made this claim about bugging the cabinet room a long time ago," Downer told ABC Radio on Thursday. "The reason they've come out and repeated this claim is tied up with Indonesia and the controversy there to get themselves more publicity."

He said at the heart of Timor-Leste's latest complaint was that the country wanted gas supplies to flow their way rather than to Australia.

"I think in the end they want to abrogate the treaty that we signed," he said.

International arbitrators have been appointed to review the 2006 treaty amid concerns of commercial advantage gained by Australia's alleged eavesdropping.

Timor-Leste says Australia has failed to provide an explanation for the allegations.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, declined to comment when asked on Thursday about Timor-Leste's allegations.

"They are in fact subject to international court proceedings and I wouldn't want to say anything that would jeopardise those proceedings in any way," she told reporters in Sydney.

Former Labor MP Janelle Saffin, now a legal adviser for Timor-Leste, said there had to be protocols around spying.

"If spying has been taking place and somebody is able to gain a commercial advantage, that is certainly of deep, deep concern," she told the ABC.

Timor-Leste claims Australian intelligence bugged the Timor-Leste cabinet room where their negotiators discussed tactics.

The Canberra journalist Paul Cleary, an adviser to the Timor-Leste government during the negotiations, told the ABC the negotiating team were advised that all their communications would be monitored.

To avoid eavesdropping during negotiations in 2005, Timor-Leste negotiators left the foreign affairs building in Canberra and held their discussions in the nearby National Gallery sculpture garden, leaving all their phones 100 metres away.

Pereira said compelling evidence would be presented at a preliminary hearing at the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague next week.

"It's not about money. It's about sovereignty, it's about certainty and it's about the future of our future generations. It's really important for Timor," he said.