In the most recent indication of China’s growing influence in the Pacific Islands region, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is traveling to Beijing this week to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the second-largest economy in the world.
The proposed pact, which is scheduled to mark the 60th anniversary of a free association agreement in 2025, has jeered decades-old ties between the Cook Islands and New Zealand, neighbors. Since that agreement, New Zealand has a significant influence over the Cook Islands, particularly in terms of its foreign policy.
We explain what the proposed agreement between China and the Cook Islands is all about, why New Zealand is upset, and what this means for the region as tensions mount.
What kind of agreement have the Cook Islands and China reached?
During his travels in February, Brown is scheduled to sign a Joint Action Plan for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China.
He has stated that the partnership will “ensure our sovereignty and national interests remain at the forefront” while not going into specifics about the plan. The Cook Islands leader’s first trip to China in ten years will be “agreed upon,” he added.
The deal is expected to revolve around trade cooperation, climate, tourism, and infrastructure.
Brown has emphasized that neither security nor defense are at stake in the deal.
However, since Beijing signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022, the United States and its allies in the region, including Australia and New Zealand, have been cautious about China’s growing influence in the Pacific. The country’s closest police force to an army is the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, which is supposedly trained there as a result of that agreement.
Does China already have a presence in the Cook Islands?
The Cook Islands’ key economic partner has been China. According to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank’s database, the Cook Islands spent $517m of foreign aid between 2008 and 2022.
New Zealand, with $219m, is the biggest contributor, but China, with $112m, is the second biggest source of the nation’s foreign assistance – more than twice Australia’s share. The US, meanwhile, has contributed only $95, 000 to the Cook Islands over these 14 years.
China and New Zealand have previously collaborated to develop a significant water supply project in the Cook Islands under a tripartite agreement, the first such agreement Beijing has ever reached.
According to the Pacific Islands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, China’s financial support, along with assistance from Australia and New Zealand, helped the Cook Islands hold the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in 2023.
China and the Solomon Islands made a commitment to pursue other initiatives, including the construction of a multiuse transportation hub in the Northern Cook Islands, in September.
Are New Zealand’s Cook Islands truly independent?
The Cook Islands, a grouping of 15 islands and atolls in the South Pacific, became a British protectorate in 1888. Despite local opposition, New Zealand annexed the area in 1901 and remained in place until 1965, when the Cook Islands gained self-government and signed a “free association” agreement with Wellington.
The Cook Islands can manage their domestic and international affairs with New Zealand’s financial support and defense as a result. Cook Islands citizens are automatically New Zealand citizens if they possess New Zealand passports. Additionally, nearly 100, 000 people who identify as Cook Islands Maori live in New Zealand.
Although the Cook Islands’ “free association” agreement with New Zealand permits regular consultation on foreign policy, particularly in terms of security and strategic issues, is technically unconstrained by their international agreements.
Wellington is required to respond to requests for assistance with foreign affairs, disasters, and defense, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand.
The Cook Islands government’s representative said it was anticipated that any significant agreements that the country’s foreign ministry planned to enter would “have significant strategic and security implications” be fully discussed with Wellington.
Did New Zealand and the Cook Islands suddenly become tense?
No, they had been building up.
The Cook Islands made a proposal in December 2024 to establish its own passport system, but Brown claimed it would only serve as a means of identifying its citizens as Cook Islanders and not as a travel document or anything similar.
However, Cook Islanders were vocal critics of this decision, warning that it might result in their losing their right to permanent residency and their own permanent residence. In the end, the proposal was withdrawn due to pressure from the government and the general public.
“New Zealand has bared its teeth”, Brown told Cook Islands News, a local publication, and had indicated that it was “willing to punish Cook Islanders” over the passport proposal.
“The passport has to be off. We’ll look at other ways to be able to recognise our own nationality as Cook Islanders”, he added.
What is New Zealand’s response to the China deal?
New Zealand has expressed concern about the uncertainty surrounding the Cook Islands’ agreement with China, arguing that such significant international agreements should be discussed in advance.
After Brown announced his trip, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, told radio station Newstalk ZB: “]This] has blindsided both the Cook Islands people and ourselves”.
Brown says the deal is purely economic, but New Zealand views it as a blow to the two countries’ diplomatic relations.
“First of all, a demand to have a separate passport, so to speak, which would be dramatic in terms of our constitutional arrangements, and also the coming visit to China”, said Peters, who is also New Zealand’s foreign minister, speaking to Newstalk ZB.
Are there any other regional tensions that New Zealand is entangled in?
Yes, it is.
Following the abrupt cancellation of a meeting between New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, New Zealand officials announced last month that they were reconsidering all development aid to Kiribati.
New Zealand contributed $58m in development aid to Kiribati between 2021 and 2024, according to official figures.
It is difficult for us to come together on common goals for our development program and make sure it is well-targeted and effective, according to a statement from Peters’ office. In the end, New Zealand will review any development cooperation with Kiribati, it added.
Just one week before the scheduled meeting, Peters claimed he was informed that Maamau couldn’t accommodate him.
Ruth Cross Kwansing, a member of parliament from Kiribati, denied her country attempted to snub New Zealand. She claimed in a Facebook post that protocol changes caused the meeting to be called off.
She wrote on January 28 that she felt it was important that these kinds of decisions be based on real development processes and not as a tool for political pressure. “New Zealand has every right to review its aid program to Kiribati or any developing country,” she wrote.
Since Kiribati and China signed a number of bilateral agreements in 2019, there have been more tense situations. In response to the growing preference of Pacific islanders for Beijing, Kiribati also cut ties with pro-West Taiwan.
What strategic significance do the Cook Islands and other Pacific islands have?
The Cook Islands, along with 13 other small Pacific nations, excluding New Zealand and Australia, hold strategic value due to their geographic location. They host a population of less than 13 million but cover 15 percent of the planet’s surface.
Scattered over vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean, these islands are critical for maritime routes, military positioning, and geopolitical influence.
The area served as a frontline for Japan and the US during World War II, with naval bases and airstrips a significant part in the Pacific theater.
China’s engagement in the Pacific has largely focused on aid, investment, and infrastructure projects, including roads, schools, and clinics. But that assistance has grown dramatically, and after witnessing some cuts during COVID-19, has surged again – second only to Australia, and far ahead of New Zealand and the US.
China has also switched to offering more grants, according to data from the Lowy Institute, despite criticism that it is locking smaller nations in debt traps with loans.
What does this mean for the global power balance?
China and the US, Australia, and New Zealand are competing for influence in the region with the proposed China-Cook Islands strategic agreement as a result.
The Solomon Islands’ security agreement became effective in 2019 when Beijing was forced to abandon Taiwan and reaffirm itself as China’s sole legitimate government.
In the same way, Kiribati also formally shifted from Taiwan to China in 2019. Since then, China has funded various infrastructure projects in Kiribati, including road improvements and solar energy installations. In January 2020, Kiribati also joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Source: Aljazeera
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