Category Archives: Cook Islands

Cook Islands releases terms of deal with China amid protests about lack of transparency

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Agreement includes sections on deep-sea mining and education, document shows, as opposition accuses PM of risking relationship with New Zealand

A strategic partnership deal between China and the Cook Islands spans areas from deep-sea mining to education scholarships but excludes security ties, a document released by the Pacific island nation’s government showed.

Western nations that traditionally held sway in the region have become increasingly concerned about China’s push for influence in the Pacific, after Beijing signed defence, trade and financial deals with countries in the region over the past three years.

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Cook Islands PM defends signing of wide-ranging deal with China

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Mark Brown says Beijing deal that covers trade, investment, oceans, infrastructure and transport complements ties with New Zealand

The Cook Islands says it has signed a deal to expand relations with China, stressing that the accord does not impinge on ties with former colonial power New Zealand.

Prime minister Mark Brown said he signed an “action plan for the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Chinese premier Li Qiang in the northern city of Harbin during a five-day state visit to China last week.

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New Zealand raises ‘concern’ as Cook Islands prepares to sign China deal

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Deputy PM says New Zealand hasn’t been adequately consulted on an agreement the Cook Islands leader is expected to sign in Beijing this week

A diplomatic row has erupted between two tight-knit Pacific countries, after New Zealand said the Cook Islands failed to properly consult on its plans to deepen ties with China amid growing concerns over Beijing’s push for influence in the region.

The Cook Islands was a dependent New Zealand colony from 1901-1965 but has since operated as a self-governing nation in “free association” with New Zealand. Its roughly 17,000 citizens hold New Zealand citizenship. There are obligations between the two nations to regularly consult on matters of defence and security.

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Finnish coastguard boards tanker suspected of causing power and internet cable outages

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Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea

Finnish authorities have seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it caused the outage of an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia a day earlier, and that it also damaged or broke four internet lines.

A Finnish coastguard crew boarded the Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, on Thursday. The crew took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coastguard official told a press conference.

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NRL player Troy Dargan dies after motorcycle crash in Cook Islands

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Canberra Raiders recruit dies aged 26 while holidaying with his family at Christmas

The NRL player Troy Dargan has died in a motorcycle accident while holidaying in the Cook Islands.

Dargan played two NRL games, both for South Sydney in 2020, and had joined Canberra on a two-year contract for the upcoming season.

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Pacific Islands Forum: what is it and why does it matter?

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Climate change and rising strategic competition among issues facing leaders at region’s most important political gathering

The leaders of Pacific nations will gather in the Cook Islands this week for the most closely watched meeting on the regional calendar. The Pacific Islands Forum, or Pif, is the main political decision making body for the region. This year discussions are likely to be dominated by climate change ahead of COP28, and will also address how to manage increasing geostrategic competition – including the rise of China.

On the eve of the summit, officials confirmed the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Zealand would not attend – weakening the prospects of progress on some issues.

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Pacific Islands Forum: four leaders fail to attend as China-US rivalry takes centre stage

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The US has been racing to reopen embassies and deepen links with Pacific countries in wake of Solomon Islands security pact with China

The leaders of three Melanesian countries are missing the region’s most important annual political gathering, dealing a blow to attempts by Pacific island countries to project unity at a time of rising geopolitical rivalry.

Officials confirmed the prime ministers of Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea would not be travelling to the Cook Islands for the Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) meeting running from Monday to Friday.

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Biden pledges more aid to Pacific islands to counter growing Chinese influence

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Leaders of Pacific island states have been given star treatment in Washington but Chinese influence is the spectre at the feast

Joe Biden has offered more economic aid to Pacific islands at a White House meeting with leaders from the region aimed at bolstering US engagement in the face of a growing Chinese presence.

The president also announced formal US recognition of two new island nations, the Cook Islands and Niue, at the start of the Pacific Islands Forum, two days of Washington meetings with leaders from the group’s 18 members.

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CSIRO joins deep-sea mining project in Pacific as islands call for industry halt

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Agency to lead consortium in scheme targeting battery materials while conservationists say Australia on ‘wrong side of debate’

Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, has agreed to work with a controversial deep-sea mining project in the Pacific as a fourth island nation joins a call for a moratorium on the industry.

CSIRO will lead a consortium of scientists from Australia and New Zealand to help the Metals Company (TMC) develop an environmental management plan for its project, which is backed by the Nauru government.

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Cook Islands reports first Covid case amid fears of ‘silent transmission’

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Hundreds turn out for testing across the Pacific country after a traveller from New Zealand tested positive for the virus

One of the last remaining countries without Covid-19 - the small Pacific nation of Cook Islands - has reported its first case of the virus.

Prime minister Mark Brown said the first case arrived on an international flight from New Zealand on 10 February.

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‘We were very blessed’: in the Cook Islands, pandemic proved a welcome respite from tourists

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Despite the loss of income, some people say they enjoyed the peace of border closures while the environment had a chance to recover

For nearly a year and a half after the onset of the pandemic, the Cook Islands didn’t see a single tourist.

In early 2020 the south Pacific country was forced to close its borders to keep Covid-19 out. In doing so it shut the doors on an industry that contributes two-thirds of the remote island country’s GDP.

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Cook Islands-flagged tankers scrubbed for alleged sanctions-busting

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Two tankers flying the flag of the remote Pacific archipelago are alleged to have been involved in subterfuge shipping of Iranian oil

Two tankers flying the flag of the Cook Islands have been scrubbed from the islands’ shipping registry after allegations the vessels were sanctions-busting, transporting Iranian crude oil while concealing their movements.

US sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sector have, somewhat improbably, caught up the tiny Cooks archipelago on the other side of the world.

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Future of Pacific Islands Forum in doubt as north-south rift emerges

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Exclusive: Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru question whether to remain members amid bullying claims

Leaders of Micronesian countries are contemplating abandoning the Pacific Islands Forum altogether, after a fractious vote for a new secretary general sidelined the north Pacific countries, who say they are bullied by larger nations, and left with “crumbs”.

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is the Pacific region’s most important political body and a powerful voice for the Pacific on the global stage, but the election of former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna as secretary general has exposed a deep fracture between north and south Pacific nations.

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Small but mighty, Pacific states have led the charge for banning nuclear weapons | Emily Defina

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A global treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons becomes international law today. But the fight to rid the world of these dismal weapons continues.

In 1995, thousands of people marched peacefully hand-in-hand through the Tahitian capital of Pape’ete. The palm-lined streets were awash with songs of protest.

On a nearby shorefront, Cook Islanders had just arrived by traditional voyaging canoe: a vaka. They were there to deliver a message of solidarity with their island neighbours, en route to the nuclear test site of Moruroa.

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Life without Covid: the nations that have sidestepped the pandemic so far

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A handful of countries – most of them islands, most of them remote – remain coronavirus-free, but life has not remained wholly unchanged

For all of its virulence, for all the breathtaking speed with which it spread seemingly everywhere around the globe, there are places still where Covid-19 has not reached, and might never.

Places without face masks or elbow-bumps, without QR codes or capacity limits, without lockdowns or social distancing. There are a handful of countries across the globe – many of them islands, most of them remote – that have managed to escape the pandemic. But while the virus hasn’t hit, the global shockwaves it has sent rippling around the world certainly have.

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New Zealand and Cook Islands to launch quarantine-free travel bubble

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Residents will be able to travel between the two countries without isolating from early next year

New Zealand and the Cook Islands have agreed to a travel arrangement, the leaders of the two countries have announced, while Australians must wait a while longer to fly across the ditch.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her Cook Islands counterpart, Mark Brown, instructed officials to put in place measures to safely recommence two-way quarantine-free travel in the first quarter of 2021.

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Pacific nations herald Biden presidency amid hope for action on climate emergency

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Optimism abounds as leaders from Fiji to Papua New Guinea welcome the new US president-elect

Joe Biden’s presidential ascension had not even been settled when Fiji’s forthright prime minister was already urging greater US action on climate change from the incoming American leader.

“Congratulations Joe Biden,” Frank Bainimarama tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “Together, we have a planet to save from a climate emergency and a global economy to build back better from Covid-19.”

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Cook Islands’ prime minister gives himself 17 portfolios

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Mark Brown’s multiple ministries prompt opposition to suggest PM lacks confidence in his cabinet

The Cook Islands’ new prime minister has allocated himself 17 portfolios in the country’s government.

Aside from the premiership, Mark Brown is the minister for foreign affairs, immigration, finance, energy and renewables, police, and telecommunications. He is also holds portfolio responsibilities for marine resources, seabed minerals and natural resources, superannuation, and the country’s outer islands. Brown is also the country’s attorney-general.

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Pacific states face instability, hunger and slow road to Covid recovery: Dame Meg Taylor

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While the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has so far spared the Pacific, its economies are in free-fall, the region’s chief diplomat warns

Beyond the health and economic crises of Covid-19, the global pandemic has the potential to cause political instability and undermine state security across the Pacific, the region’s chief diplomat has warned.

Dame Meg Taylor, secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, said the region’s economies were struggling with the virus-induced shocks, and a prolonged crisis could worsen existing problems of hunger, poor healthcare, and state fragility.

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Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing

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Covid-19-related developments throughout the Pacific Islands

The total number of Covid-19 cases across the Pacific stands at 314, with new cases reported this week in New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

New Zealand is under increasing pressure, both internally and from across the region, to consider Pacific countries as part of its proposed travel ‘bubble’, alongside, or even in place of, Australia. The foreign minister, Winston Peters, initially rejected including Pacific island nations, but later backtracked.

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