Cook Islands Find Themselves in Political Storm

 

By Henry Srebrnik, Saint John telegraph-Journal

The Pacific islands are small but in many ways they are mighty. These nations sit in an ocean that accounts for a third of the world’s surface area. What happens in their waters, politically, economically, and diplomatically, will help shape the future of the world.

One of the smallest jurisdictions, the Cook Islands, an archipelago of 15 islands between New Zealand and Hawaii, has been self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1965, sharing a military and passports. New Zealand also provides the Cook Islands with budgetary assistance. It is permitted an independent foreign policy, but the two countries are required to consult on security, defence and foreign policy issues.

Its population of 15,040 is dwarfed by more than 90,000 who identify as Cook Island Maori and who live in Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand. And while tourism is a key industry, the islanders want to ensure that sustainability remains at the nation’s core.

Brad Kirner, director of destination development at the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, admits that discussions about global warming in the community can be fraught. “If we face reality it’s going to need some pretty serious adaptation measures put in play.” He adds that “travel is a significant contributor to global warming, and we need to face that fact.”

The Cook Islands may be tiny, but its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area of the sea in which a  state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.^[covers 1,960,027 square kilometres. Cook Islanders have taken marine conservation to a global scale.

These dots in a huge ocean have now become part of geopolitical rivalries. China has been wooing Pacific Island countries with strategic partnership agreements, and this has caused friction with New Zealand, Australia and other Pacific nations.

Full diplomatic relations between the Cooks and China were established in 1997. This past February, the country surprised New Zealand by signing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement with Beijing on regional cooperation and economic issues. They cover infrastructure, ship-building, tourism, agriculture, technology, education and, perhaps crucially, deep-sea mineral exploration.

While New Zealand has also boosted aid, it cannot compete financially with China. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown maintained that if New Zealand could not afford to fund the country’s national infrastructure investment plan – billed at $650 million — the Cook Islands would need to look elsewhere.

He insisted that the agreement with Beijing did not “replace our longstanding relationships with New Zealand, Australia and others, but rather complements them, ensuring that we have a diversified portfolio of partnerships.” He has asserted that “engagement has been consistent, respectful and open” and that the Cook Islands has the right to forge its own path as a self-governing country.

Brown contends his decisions will be based on the “long-term interests” of the Islands, which are resource-rich -- but vulnerable to climate change. China’s foreign ministry maintained it was ready to work with the country to “achieve new progress.” Not everyone agrees. There were protests and a vote of no confidence against Brown in parliament, which he survived in February.

The agreement did not include security cooperation, but it did allow for more China-funded infrastructure projects. And New Zealand, the biggest provider of financial support for the Cook Islands, was not reassured. Since Cook Islanders can also freely work and live in New Zealand, it heightened security concerns after the agreement with China was signed.

While visiting China in June, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced that millions of dollars in funding would be suspended while his government examines the “breadth and content” of the agreements with China. The Islands government was not transparent about the scope of its strategic partnership with China, he contended.

The funding pause amounts to a $18 million development assistance payment for the next financial year, according to government figures. The funds in question are part of a larger raft of $116 million in aid provided by New Zealand to the Cook Islands over the past three years under its free association agreement and earmarked for health, education and tourism sectors.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters added that the Cook Islands agreements with China demonstrated a “a gap in understanding” between the governments “about what our special relationship of free association requires.” He called on its government to take “concrete steps to repair the relationship and restore trust.”

Not coincidentally, New Zealand’s intelligence agency this month warned of growing foreign interference and espionage, with China singled out as the “most assertive and powerful” actor, with both the intent and capability to target New Zealand’s interests in the Pacific.

But China’s ambassador, Wang Xiaolong, who was recently in Rarotonga, insisted that the agreements have nothing to do with military or security agenda. “I think it is very clear that the cooperation is largely concentrated on economic cooperation.”

The Cook Islands want to join the United Nations, which New Zealand won’t allow, while China says it will support its aspirations to expand its membership of international organisations. New Zealand has now gone further, calling on Prime Minister Brown to hold a referendum on independence from New Zealand to test public opinion following his defence of the agreements with China.