The Cook Islands’ prime minister yesterday survived a no-confidence vote, blaming “misinformation” from former colonial ruler New Zealand for destabilizing his Pacific country.
The parliament voted 13 to nine against the motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown’s government, sparked by a partnership deal he signed with China.
The agreement, sealed during a state visit to China this month, irked New Zealand’s government and worried some Cook Islanders keen to maintain close ties with Wellington.
Photo: AFP
However, Brown said that New Zealand media had sold short his consultation with Wellington on the China accord, as well as overblowing his now-defunct plan for a “symbolic” Cook Islands passport.
“This constant media barrage, Mr Speaker, has now led to destabilization in our country,” he told parliament. “This motion of no confidence has been built on misinformation.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) did not address the no-confidence vote directly when asked about it at a news conference in Beijing.
“China is willing to develop friendly and cooperative relations with the Cook Islands and other Pacific island countries on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Lin said.
New Zealand has alleged a lack of consultation and transparency from the Cook Islands government over the five-year “action plan” for a comprehensive strategic partnership that was signed with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強).
Brown said his government had consulted “for months” with Wellington about the agreement, “but the messaging that goes out is that we never consult.”
The Cook Islands had also given assurances that the passport proposal — meant as a “symbolic passport of identity,” not a travel document — was now “a dead matter,” he said.
“It becomes very clear this is not about consultation. This is about control,” Brown said.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that members of the Cook Islands parliament had the absolute right to free speech.
“Accordingly, we have no further comment to make,” they added.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS