New Zealand Pressed Cook Islands For Months Over China Deals, OIA Documents Reveal

Teuila
Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior reporter

New
Zealand spent at least eight months asking to see agreements
made by Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown with China,
which are now at the heart of differences between the two
nations.

The rift in diplomatic relations, which led
to Wellington halting NZ$18.2 million in funding to the Cook
Islands, is detailed in communication documents released
under the Official Information Act from Foreign Minister
Winston Peters’ office.

The Cook Islands is a realm
country of New Zealand, which means it governs its own
affairs, but New Zealand provides some assistance with
foreign affairs, disaster relief and defence. Under the
arrangement, New Zealand said it should have been consulted
over the Cook Islands-China deals, on which Brown holds a
different view.

At the end of May, three months after
Brown went to Beijing to sign the four agreements, a
briefing from New Zealand Foreign Affairs Ministry stated
that “there is potential risk” that “elements” of its
development programme may be undermined or put at risk by
the agreements.

The documents from Peters’ office,
while heavily redacted, detailed close scrutiny of New
Zealand’s development programme in the Cook Islands by his
officials. Between 2021 and 2024, this totalled $194.2
million in funding.

“This support is delivered through
bilateral, regional and multi-country projects,” one
briefing stated.

“The assessment found that New
Zealand’s development embeds New Zealand as the preferred
and indeed only partner for the Cook Islands across a wider
range of sectors. New Zealand will be the largest donor to
the Cook Islands for the 2025/26 financial year, with 63.1
percent of donor support coming from us.”

The
documents also showed the agreements, which included a
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership arrangement (CSP), was
the latest development in an increasingly strained
relationship between Cook Islands and New
Zealand.

Officials in New Zealand were particularly
frustrated.

“There is a lack of openness in the
relationship from the Cook Islands’ side, and they are not
consulting on matters of mutual interest and importance as
required in a free association relationship,” another
briefing from January stated.

“There has been a
noticeable downturn in engagement with New Zealand on issues
of significant strategic concern.”

The January
briefing, specifically on the Cook Islands-China CSP, also
stated that Peters even asked his Cook Islands counterpart
Tingika Elikana “to share the text” eight months earlier in
May 2024 when the pair met at a high-level bilateral
meeting.

Meetings between New Zealand’s High
Commissioner in Rarotonga and senior Cook Islands officials
that conveyed New Zealand’s “deep concerns” were also
referenced.

Overall, the documents pinpoint the
pivotal disconnect between New Zealand and the Cook Islands
understanding of their bilateral relationship. In
particular, New Zealand officials have assessed the
behaviour of the smaller nation, and Brown as its leader, to
directly conflict with its obligations under the
self-governing and free association arrangement.

“This
ongoing resistance illustrates a fundamental disagreement
between Prime Minister Brown and his key advisers and New
Zealand on the nature of our constitutional relationship,” a
March briefing stated.

“They consider that, despite
free association, shared citizenship and a shared sovereign,
the Cook Islands is fully sovereign and independent. They
consider that the free association relationship does not,
and should not, constrain the Cook Islands.

“We
fundamentally disagree.”

The briefing, titled ‘China
and the Cook Islands elevated partnership: New Zealand’s
response’, also said official respondence from New Zealand
should state “that the continued absence of meaningful
engagement by the Cook Islands government will signal to us,
and to the people of the Cook Islands…that it is no longer
committed to the free association relationship”.

Since
then, Peters has challenged Brown to call a referendum
asking Cook Islands people whether they want to remain in
free association with New Zealand.

Brown has also
criticised New Zealand for being hypocritical
– saying the larger nation did not consult Cook Islands on
its foreign affairs developments.

He has also said
that a major
motivator in signing the agreements with China was the
funding and development needs of the Cook
Islands.

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