CMATS provides another useful model of “provisional arrangements
of a practical nature” designed to deal with complex, overlapping claims to
maritime jurisdiction. The Treaty is innovative, for instance through the
detailed moratorium provisions and creation of a joint Maritime Commission
which appears to have a broad mandate. Ultimately, however, CMATS is
another interim arrangement. Despite all the complex negotiations over the
past three and a half decades that have involved four countries, no maritime
boundary has been definitively delimited in the central Timor Sea. The issue
will therefore inevitably return to bilateral political agendas in the future for
final resolution. In the meantime, however, CMATS provides a sound basis for
‘minding the Gap’, that is, dealing with overlapping maritime jurisdictional claims
in the Timor Sea and ensuring that oceans management, and particularly
seabed resource development, can proceed without delay.