Paul Cleary – When Australian commandos landed in the colony of Portuguese Timor in 1941, they immediately noticed that the gum trees, rocks and ochre-coloured earth were strikingly similar to home.

Steve Bracks – The revelation this week that Australia will negotiate a maritime boundary with Timor-Leste represents a significant and welcome policy shift within the Australian Government.

Progress in this decades-old dispute is long overdue. Australia's commitment to negotiations is a positive step for both countries, the broader region and the international community.

Michael Leach – Election year in Timor-Leste got off to an unexpected start with Monday's joint announcement that the government in Dili would terminate its 2006 treaty with Australia covering maritime arrangements in the Timor Sea. The decision, which Australia said it would not contest, opens the way for fresh boundary negotiations between the two countries.

Babs McHugh – Political and energy analysts have expressed serious doubts that East Timor will ever be able to benefit from a major gas project unless it changes its policy.

East Timor and the Australian Government on Monday announced they would abandon a 10-year-old treaty on maritime borders.

Bec Strating – On Monday, a joint statement from the governments of Timor-Leste and Australia announced that Timor-Leste planned to officially notify Australia that it wished to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).

Tom Clarke – Australia's dodgy oil and gas treaty with East Timor is dead. Now it's time to negotiate fair and permanent maritime boundaries with our tiny neighbour.

Emily Stewart – It is back to the drawing board for a maritime agreement between Australia and East Timor.

At stake are oil and gas reserves worth up to $40 billion but, while both governments fight over future revenue sharing, development of the project has not even started.

John Martinkus – East Timor's cancellation of the 2006 Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which centres on the oil between Australia and Timor, is not about money. It is not about the median line. It is not about whether Australia bullied the small country into making the agreement.

Ben Potter – The Greater Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea – which has poisoned relations between Australia and tiny Timor-Leste – won't produce any revenue before the late 2020s if ever, experts say.

Angela Macdonald-Smith – The fresh uncertainty that has enveloped the Timor Sea petroleum province comes at a critical time for the gas venture that currently provides most of the revenue for tiny, impoverished Timor-Leste.

Kim Landers: Political leaders in East Timor say they're looking forward to capitalising on the new economic opportunities from oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, is on track to establish a new maritime boundary in the Timor Sea, after tearing up a controversial treaty with Australia.

Katherine Gregory reports.

Rebecca Strating – The government of Timor-Leste has officially notified Australia of its wish to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS). The treaty sets out the division of revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields, an estimated A$40 billion deposit in the Timor Sea.

Damien Kingsbury – East Timor has won a significant moral victory in the Timor Sea dispute, with Australia agreeing to scrap the controversial 2006 Timor Sea treaty. However, East Timor's hope that this now spells the beginning of the end of that dispute, much less that it will secure the country's economic future, might be overly optimistic.

Hopes of a clean slate in developing the gas riches of the Timor Sea have now shifted to the international courts in The Hague.

Australia has backed down and agreed to scrap an existing 2006 revenue-sharing deal in the Timor Sea that in Dili's eyes had been hopelessly tainted by alleged Australian spying and bullying.

Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney – Australia and Timor Leste have agreed to walk away from a controversial deal over a lucrative A$50 billion (S$53 billion) oil and gas field, a step in resolving a long-running bitter dispute over their maritime border.

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste government has established a secretariat for youth from the Community of Portuguese Language-Speaking Countries (CPLP), with the aim of strengthening the friendship between member countries.

Timor-Leste government has established a secretariat for youth from the Community of CPLP, with the aim of strengthening the friendship between member countries.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign has welcomed the joint decision by the Australian and Timor Governments to abolish the 2006 Timor Sea Treaty.

Daniel Flitton – East Timor will abandon the multi-billion dollar oil and gas treaty at the centre of sensational spying claims by Australia.

The two countries issued a joint statement on Monday declaring the deal to be dead, just over four months after East Timor took the unprecedented step to demand confidential conciliation talks with Australia at The Hague.

Kerrie Armstrong, Myles Morgan – Timor Leste will be no better off despite the cancellation of a treaty that divided resource revenues between the country and Australia, an expert says.

Australia and Timor-Leste are engaged in the ongoing Conciliation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The purpose of this process is to resolve the differences between the two States over maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea.

Sarina Locke – An Australian agricultural aid worker motivated to assist East Timorese people has helped farmers double crop yields and find useful time saving devices.

Yohanes Seo, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has expressed his appreciation to the Public Works Ministry for establishing border outpost (PLBN) in the border between Indonesia and Timor Leste.

Pamela Sexton, Dili, Timor-Leste – Recently, thousands of U.S. military veterans travelled to North Dakota to support the peaceful struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to defend their sovereignty and protect their land and water. I watched the veterans bend down to ask forgiveness from the many indigenous tribes gathered there.

David Hutt – I ask for no outpouring of sympathy, but those of us who spend our days jotting down opinions and making them available for public consumption face a perennial question of whether we want feedback. Perhaps, though, that's just me. A response might arrive in the inbox with sentiments of support but, more often than not, they come with the opposite intention.

Duncan Graham – Greig Cunningham wants to know how and why his brother Gary died. The New Zealand news cameraman was killed in 1975 by Indonesian Special Forces in what was then East Timor – now Timor-Leste.

In his four-decade fact hunt, the retired Australian accountant's latest stopover has been the brothers' birthplace, New Zealand.

Mahinda Arkyasa, Jakarta – The Timor Leste government extended it condolences for the passing of Dr. George Junus Aditjondro on December 10, 2016.

Paulina Quintao – The National Parliament has approved proposed law no. 26/III/2015 on the prevention and fight against human trafficking. Of the 64 MPs, 34 were present, with 32 voting in favor, two abstentions and none against.

Damon Evans – East Timor could be bankrupt within a decade unless it takes urgent action to diversify its economy and reassess its fixation with mega-petroleum projects

Paulina Quintao – The falling price of coffee makes has saddened growers in Ermera municipality who are struggling to improve their lives and send their children to school.

The President of Ermera municipality authority, Jose Martinho do Santos Soares, said the coffee price is a perennial problem for farmers, which has not been tackled so far.

Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health (MoH) in cooperation with its partners has set up a taskforce to help prevent diseases spread by animals, including rabies and influenza (H1N1 virus).

The Coffee Festival of Timor-Leste, which aims to select the best coffee and the best cocktail made with this product, will run until 3 December, as part of an event open to farmers and groups of associated farmers.

A woman from East Timor spoke out about her experience of being forced to serve as a "comfort woman" by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, as she visited Japan for the first time earlier this month.

Ella Fabry – Tomorrow, November 28, one of the world's newest nations, Timor Leste, will celebrate the anniversary of its declaration of independence from foreign rule. It's unfortunate that against that backdrop of pride and celebration, Timor continues to fight for self-determination and economic security against a much wealthier neighbour.

Paulina Quintao – Teachers are continuing to use violence to discipline students at schools, even though there is a zero-tolerance policy in place.National MP Anastasia Amaral said she disagreed with teachers using violence against students during the learning process because this type of attitude only frightened the students.

Venidora Oliveira – There are calls for the government to provide more training to Suburban Police (OPS) units to improve their professionalism at a grassroots level.

National MP Duarte Nunes said officers worked together directly with the communities they served and therefore needed to learn about ways they could establish a good relationship.

Venidora Oliveira – First Lady Isabel Ferreira said that an independent justice system in Timor-Leste would contribute to the country's peace and stability and therefore the state should guarantee it.

She said that justice and peace cannot be separated because in order to strengthen the country's stability a strong justice system free of political interference was needed.

Paulina Quintao – The National Parliament (NP) has created a resolution to compel relevant line ministries to implement the integrated national program for combating malnutrition in the country.

Paulina Quintao – Washing hands before eating is very important for the prevention of infectious and other diseases but most Timorese are still used to it.

The General Director of the National Hospital Guido Valadares, Dr Jose Antonio said the act of washing hands is a basic behaviour that children should be taught by parents but this does not yet take place.

Paulina Quintao – Four containers full of medicines at the Medicine and Medical Equipment Autonomous Service (SAMES) warehouse were alleged to be expired and the government will have to destroy them soon.

Paulina Quintao – Three to five people out of 40 people who donated blood each day are found to be Hepatitis B positive, based on new data made available from the National Blood Bank (BNS) of Timor-Leste.

BNS Unit Head, Arsenio Jose said the blood transfusion service is important but some caution needs to be exercised to ensure blood donations are screened for infectious diseases.

Paulina Quintao – The original tais (traditional cloth) of the Timor-Leste is in grave danger of becoming extinct due to the government's inaction to develop policy to promote and protect traditional tais weaving.

The Executive Director of Alola foundation, Alzira Reis said some of the tais currently being sold in Dili are imitations and some even imported by foreign entrepreneurs.

Dili – Today, thirteen influential leaders, including from government, institutions, and civil society, signed a Charter declaring their commitment to preventing violence against women and children in Timor-Leste.

Last week, Timor-Leste's government issued a press release Timor-Leste's economic outlook positive as reforms begin to show results.

Paulina Quintao – Timor-Leste President Taur Matan Ruak used commemorations for the 25th anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre to call on young people to study and work hard towards a better future and continue the struggle to improve people's well-being because it was the heroes' dream.

Paulina Quintao – National MP Osorio Florindo is disappointed with the attitude of some health officials who provide substandard health services and threaten the patients at the Bazartete Health center, Liquisa municipality.

Damon Evans – Without new sources of income East Timor could be bankrupt as early as 2027, new research from Dili-based thinktank La'o Hamutuk shows.

Timor-Leste looks forward to successful elections next year and stand ready to strengthen its relationships as a member of ASEAN.

While there are indications of Beijing's growing reach, its role needs to be kept in perspective.

Paulina Quintao – The November 12 Committee has worked with the government to identify the remains of 12 people killed in the Santa Cruz massacre 25 years ago.

The remains have now been returned to the families for burial according to Timorese tradition.

Committee President Gregorio Saldanha said many of those who died in the Santa Cruz massacre were still unaccounted for.

Paulina Quintao – National MP Leonel Marcal called on the Ministry of Health to ban private pharmacies from selling formalin to the community without a medical prescription.

He said this measure should be adopted because the misuse of formalin may be having a negative impact on people's health.