East Timor | People give hero’s welcome to border talks negotiator

Independence hero Xanana Gusmao (center) waves a national flag upon arrival in Dili

Thousands of East Timorese lined the road to the capital’s international airport yesterday to cheer returning independence hero Xanana Gusmao for leading negotiations that settled the sea border between the impoverished country and Australia.

Gusmao, whose party lost power in parliamentary elections last year, was greeted at Dili’s airport with cries of “Viva Xanana Gusmao.”

He’d been abroad for the previous eight months leading the final stretch of maritime border talks.

Australia and East Timor, one of the world’s youngest nations, signed a historic treaty Tuesday drawing their maritime boundary, ending years of bitter wrangling and opening a new chapter in relations.

For East Timor, a half-island nation of 1.5 million people who are among the poorest in the world, the treaty was crucial for possible economic development.

The two sides are still to agree on final terms for the exploitation of billions of dollars of oil and gas riches that lie beneath the Timor Sea. AP

Categories Asia-Pacific