Australian minister visits East Timor to repairs relations

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she is the national capital Dili on Monday to meet newly elected leaders. She is the first Australian minister to visit the near neighbour in five years. (Photo By Antonio Cruz/Agência Brasil [CC BY 3.0 br (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed.en)])

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she is the national capital Dili on Monday to meet newly elected leaders. She is the first Australian minister to visit the near neighbour in five years.

Australia, a wealthy nation of 25 million people, ended an acrimonious dispute with the poor, half-island nation of 1.5 million people in March with the signing of a bilateral treaty that shares oil and gas revenue from the Timor Sea which separates them.

East Timor had challenged the validity of a revenue-sharing agreement signed in 2006 because it alleged Australia had bugged government offices in Dili in 2004 to gain an unfair advantage in negotiations.