Quote:
Originally Posted by headquarters
But will you give back the oilfields that the Indonesians grabbed from the East Timorese and subsequently sold to Australia ....
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There are differing opinions on this point. Once East Timor gained independence large undersea areas with oil and gas reserves that should probably have belonged to the new East Timorese nation ended up either under Australian control or are jointly controlled by Australia and East Timor. Some might see it as Australia taking advantage of East Timor but then again with Australian help and joint control East Timor is likely to see those gas and oilfields developed much faster and also East Timor will be in a stronger position to get a decent income out of it (my point being that without Australia's help it would be easy for petro-chemical companies to drive a hard bargain and basically rip East Timor off).
I'm not sure how to feel about it yet. Part of me thinks that without Australian and New Zealand help East Timor would still be a province of Indonesia. And Australia is still providing heaps of support (financial, security, logistical) to East Timor. I haven't been to East Timor myself so I don't know how people on the ground there feel about the situation.