A strategic partnership deal between China and the Cook Islands spans areas from deep-sea mining to education scholarships, but excludes security ties, a document released by the Pacific nation’s government showed.
Western nations that traditionally held sway in the region have become increasingly concerned about China’s plans to increase influence after Beijing signed defense, trade and financial deals with Pacific countries in the past three years.
Amid domestic criticism of lack of transparency, the government unveiled the action plan for the deal on Monday in the Cook Islands, in response to calls from New Zealand, which had not been consulted, despite constitutional ties.
Photo: Reuters
“This does not replace our longstanding relationships with New Zealand, Australia and others, but rather complements them, ensuring that we have a diversified portfolio of partnerships,” Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told parliament.
“We are strengthening economic diplomacy through initiatives like our comprehensive strategic partnership with China,” he added, pointing to opportunities on offer in areas such as trade, infrastructure and ocean resources.
Opposition has grown in the Cook Islands to any threat its pacts with China pose to close ties with New Zealand, and Brown’s government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament after Tuesday next week called by opposition parties.
Brown’s remarks, which also expressed confidence in Cook Islands’ ability to protect its interests, followed a protest march to parliament in the capital of Avarua backing ties with New Zealand.
“Stay connected with New Zealand,” read one placard held by protesters, who also brandished huge replicas of New Zealand passports.
“The first concern is the lack of consultation not only with us Cook Islanders, but also with New Zealand,” said opposition leader Tina Browne, who had pushed for transparency on the deal.
China is to give a one-time grant of about US$4 million to the nation of 15,000, Brown told reporters after his return home from Beijing.
New Zealand raised concerns about his visit to China, as it had not seen in advance the agreements signed, despite having asked to review them.
A spokesman for New Zealand’s deputy prime minister said he looked forward to the release of all the pacts signed on the trip.
The neighboring government would need to analyze the contents of the pact released on Monday and its implications for New Zealand and the people of Cook Islands, whose government it intends to engage with in the coming days, he added.
Situated halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, the self-governing Cook Islands can interact with the international community as an independent state.
The neighbors have committed to consulting on security, defense and foreign relations. New Zealand also provides some budget support and commits to defend the people, who are its citizens.
Seabed mining, hydrography, disaster relief and cultural ties are areas the pact earmarks for cooperation.It does not explicitly mention security, but the prospect of greater maritime cooperation could fuel concern over potential military use of information and marine infrastructure.
While New Zealand has previously quashed the Cook Islands’ aspirations of joining the UN without becoming independent, Monday’s action plan says China would back its hopes to widen membership of global bodies.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the