Frustrated New Zealand awaits details on China-Cook Islands agreement

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

A frustrated New Zealand awaits the signing of agreements between Cook Islands and China, which Foreign Minister Winston Peters has warned could compromise New Zealand’s national interest.

Peters took the remarkable step of publicly airing a grievance with the Cooks Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown at the weekend, saying he had failed to properly consult New Zealand about a prospective comprehensive strategic partnership with China.

The Cook Islands is self-governing but has a free association arrangement with New Zealand, which helps the island nation with foreign affairs, defence, and provides its people New Zealand passports.

Efforts to understand the contents of the agreements -- including a visit to the Cook Islands by Foreign Secretary Bede Corry and Security Intelligence Service Director-General Andrew Hampton last month, and a phone call between Peters and Brown on Friday -- have failed. Peters has said there was insufficient transparency to assess “risk to our core national interest”.

“What is important is that there is transparency. In this case, there hasn't been, and that's all we're asking for,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, on Monday.

“We need to wait and see, and see what the agreement actually does.”

Brown, who according to Peters’ office has flown to Beijing, has rejected New Zealand’s frustrations, saying his consultations have been “consistent, respectful and open”.

In a video statement posted online, he said signing a co-operation agreement with China was no different from New Zealand’s comprehensive strategic partnership with China, for which is enjoys nearly $40 billion in two-way trade.

“Every agreement we enter into will be in the best interest of the Cook Islands and our people will be fully informed every step of the way.

“This means developing renewable energy, managing our seabed mineral sector, responsibly, and expanding trade opportunities. The reality is we must be financially independent.

“We must eventually be able to stand on our own two feet.”

An agreement Brown was expected to sign, according to 1 News, involved fisheries, maritime co-operation on a ferry service, and deep sea mining. According to the Cook Islands News, Brown has abandoned the possibility of creating a Cook Islands passport, after New Zealand “bared its teeth”.

China’s embassy in Wellington has said China wanted to expand co-operation with the Cook Islands and would “release further updates on this matter in due course”.

Massey University associate professor Anna Powles, an expert in Pacific security, said New Zealand was clearly concerned about the “significant security implications” that could arise from agreements around marine infrastructure and deep sea mining.

Such marine infrastructure could pose a risk of being “dual use”, meaning it may serve not only civilian purposes but Chinese military ambitions in the future. New Zealand has also signed onto an international moratorium on deep sea mining due to environmental concerns.

“It's very clear that Mark Brown sees Cook Islands' economic independence and economic sovereignty as a vehicle for Cook Island independence as a country. So he's driven clearly by resource nationalism,” Powles said.

Powles said New Zealand had been aware “for quite a long time” of the deepening Cook Islands-China relationship and Beijing’s “overtures” to Pacific countries. The “heavy-handed diplomatic tactics” would be a result of Peters’ frustrations, and concern about how Canberra and Washington would view the situation.

“Public diplomatic spats are not good strategy in the Pacific, and not when the way in which New Zealand is seen to engage with the Cook Islands will be watched very carefully by New Zealand’s other partners.”

Peter Jennings, a former Australian deputy secretary of defence and director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said both Australia and New Zealand faced a “large scale challenge” as China sought them by building relationships with political elites in Pacific countries.

“I do think that Australia has been sensible in, frankly, being more open with Pacific Island leaders to say, 'Look, we've got serious strategic interests at play here, and we expect you island governments to take those interests seriously'.”

New Zealand would need to do the same with the Cook Islands, he said.

Jennings expected this would force New Zealand to think about whether its strategy in the Pacific needed to change. New Zealand probably needed to, as Australia has, increase the tempo of diplomatic and military engagement, and push more business interests into the region, he said.

Anne Marie Brady, University of Canterbury expert on Chinese foreign policy, said Chinese control of strategic infrastructure in the Cook Islands “is naturally of a concern to New Zealand”.

“This is a real pattern across the Pacific. The governments of Vanuatu and Solomons and Fiji and Kiribati have signed agreements which the peoples in those countries do not know what's in the agreement. They're secret … China insists on a secret agreement.”

This was “an odd situation” where the Cook Islands did not want independence “but they're engaging in activities that potentially threaten our national interests and theirs as well”, she said.