The Cook Islands has signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” agreement with China without disclosing its contents to New Zealand, raising concerns in Wellington.
Despite a 2001 joint centenary declaration requiring regular consultation on defence and security issues, the Cook Islands asserts it was not obligated to consult New Zealand.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown described the agreement as part of a broader strategy to strengthen relations with key partners, including New Zealand, while maintaining sovereignty and advancing the nation’s economic and developmental interests.
The deal aims to enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, infrastructure, climate resilience, and maritime development without adding to the Cook Islands’ debt burden.
New Zealand has expressed frustration over the “lack of transparency”, with Foreign Minister Winston Peters stating that multiple requests for details were ignored, undermining meaningful consultation.
China, which has been a development partner to the Cook Islands since 2001, says the agreement targets mutual benefit and should not be influenced by third parties.
Image credit: Christoph Burgdorfer
But there’s another reason why this development should concern every New Zealander – it could signal what’s in store for us if the Coalition fails to defend Parliamentary sovereignty.
The problem is this: if the Coalition refuses to honour its election pledge to amend the Marine and Coast Area Act to deliver what Parliament intended instead of what activist judges have ruled, New Zealand’s coast will end up in the hands of hundreds of tribal groups, who, at the stroke of a pen, could sign lucrative deals with China to exploit the invaluable mineral wealth in our seabed.
https://www.nzcpr.com/parliamentary-sovereignty-hangs-in-the-balance/
The problem is this: the Coalition refuses to honour its election pledge. Otherwise they would honour mandates that the People have clearly taken away from the former lot.
But then again, ALL the parties in parliament were IN on the bioweapon and the criminalization of our protests. They ALL are compromised and therefore corrupted.
Irony!!!
We never got the benefits of our significant oil reserves which are instead exported in their crude form to Australia which refines it. These crude exports are NZ’s 4th biggest export earner – imagine how much we would instead save if we refined it and used it ourselves instead of importing fuel.
Similarly, I’ll bet we won’t ever get the benefits of our own “invaluable mineral wealth in our seabed”
Assume the Cook Islands think it’s truly kind of China to build a much larger deepwater port for free.
Maybe the Cook Islands see NZ as a colonial dictator
So that’s Kiribati, Bougainville (PNG), Solomon’s, Vanuatu, Cook Islands. There is already Chinese development in Fiji. The noose is slowly but surely tightening. The various Iwi’s who will soon be inheriting all of New Zealand won’t know what to do with all the digital currency coming their way from the CCP.
Time for us too not travel to suck countries
We are forced to know more and more about less and less until we know absolutely everything about nothing
Well done! The Cook is govt is looking after their interests and the interests of their people. No NZ govt has done this for many years.
You gotta be kidding!
As if any govt would look after its people.
The elites look after their corrupt interests first.