Australia's decision to fly 150 fruit pickers from East Timor to Tasmania may have inadvertently evended the playing field in its ongoing trade war with China. The East Timor nationals arrived Down Under earlier this month on a special charter plane to work for Aussie farmers picking berries amid a worker shortage. The program has improved relations between Australia and the Southeast Asian nation, which sits 600km off the coast of the Northern Territory. ANU's National Security College Timor expert Andrea Fahey said the pandemic is ironically behind the boosted relationship between the two nations - and that it could help to re-balance China's dominance in the Pacific.