NZ pauses nearly $20m in funding to Cook Islands after China agreements
New Zealand has paused nearly $20 million in development assistance to the Cook Islands over its recent dealings with China.
New Zealand raised concerns in February, after Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown travelled to China, prior to signing its Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the global powerhouse. The deal covered economic, infrastructure and maritime cooperation, as well as seabed mineral development.
It comes amid concerns around China’s growing influence in the Pacific.
In a statement this morning, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said $18.2 million in development funding for the 2025/26 financial year allotted to the Cook Islands, which is in free association with New Zealand, would not continue “until the Cook Islands Government takes concrete steps to repair the relationship and restore trust”.
Significant new funding would also not be considered.
“This decision was taken by Minister Peters in early June, and communicated at the time via letter to Cooks Prime Minister Mark Brown.”
The Cook Islands released this detail as Luxon meets Xi to maximise the damage to NZ.
The Cook Islands, are now acting as an enemy to us.
Now the scale of what the Cook Islands has secretly signed with China is clear, NZ has every right to be furious at the Cook Islands treason.
The deal is far worse than we feared.
It is an immediate green light to China building a Port and that has always been the main danger because let’s be as clear as we can, if China gains a Port in the Cook Islands, they will immediately flood it with their Chinese fishing militia and they will start actively plundering New Zealand’s fishing stock.
Those of you screaming colonialism at those criticising the Cooks for their treason better save their breath because if you are furious at NZs ‘colonialism’, you are going to have plenty to say about China plundering our fisheries, or is it only environmental vandalism when white people do it?
Really?
We don’t even need to get to the point of fearing a military Port because just their fishing power is an enormous threat in of itself!
This is a direct encroachment by China into our Realm while they have sent Chinese Gunboat diplomacy to test live fire weapons in the bloody Tasman Sea.
Pretending China is somehow benign is just the most inane position to take here.
We don’t want NZ to be run by America OR China!
This was me, April 16th, 2024…
…I said that Winston had failed us as a foreign minister because the first thing he did when becoming Foreign Minister was to allow America to encroach into our Realm…
US to open embassies in the Cook Islands, Niue
Announcement comes as US President Joe Biden prepares to host a second summit with Pacific Island leaders in Washington DC.
…why were we allowing the Realm of NZ to be encroached upon by the Americans?
Surely our job as an independent voice in the pacific is to protect our Pacific Neighbours in ensuring their agency over the interests of Washington and Beijing, especially when that pacific Neighbour is part of our Realm!
America encroached into our Realm and neither Winston or Judith will criticised this encroachment because both are thralls of the American Military Industrial Complex!
They are both so keen to show America our subservience and acquiescence to whatever new war they want to drag us into, Judith and Winston will invite us themselves!
What ended up happening after we allowed the fucking Americans to encroach directly into our Realm and declare Niue and the Cooks as Independent states with no relationship with NZ?
Why the Prime Minister of the Cooks took that declaration by the Americans to negotiate a deal with China that we knew nothing about!
We allowed America to redefine the relationship last year and the Cooks PM, Mark Brown, decided to take that redefinition and negotiate a deal with China.
NZ got played by America last year and the result has been China encroaching directly into our Realm.
What the Cooks have done can not stand but we are totally compromised in criticising the Cooks new relationship with China when we are also dependent on China.
Thank you NZ Dairy Farmers for trapping us this way.
Meanwhile China expands as Trump becomes more craven.
We don’t want to be controlled by China or America.
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As though the fishing industry in NZ is some type of moral actor when it comes to conservation of fishing stock. Yeah right. The Cook Islands have every right to exploit their natural resources however they see fit – in exactly the same NZ and Australia do – without the slightest consideration for the Pacific Islands.
For the most part, China’s belt and road initiative has delivered major infrastructure and economic development to countries that engage.
NZ and Australia could have offered similar projects but instead we prefer to keep the Pacific as a cute and under developed holiday destination. Cook Islanders decided they wanted more than that for their long term future. China is the future.
Practical politics CS. This isn’t some silly neighbourhood game of sticking the mid finger up at each other.
Then they can do it without NZ citizenship and cash if they are truly independent.
Begin the deportations.
You are politicising a simple economic issue. We have economically ignored the islands for over 50 years.
They have abundant fishing resources but absolutely no way to exploit them. Cooperation between the islands is minimal and world trade regulations are prohibitive to the islands working together to develop regional supply chains.
Iceland in the 1970s played the US and Russia off against each other. In the end they sided with NATO in return for the US supporting a 200 mile exclusion zone so they could protect, develop and exploit their fishing resources.
Chapeau Cook Islands – I have no problem with you doing the same and kudos to China for playing a blinder.
Based. The filthy traitors Peters, Luxon, and Seymour, who only serve ‘israel’ and its American golem, deserve all the pain they can get.
Dont worry Luxon has signed us up to the belt and road program to south America so we will be safe now .
“Thank you NZ Dairy Farmers for trapping us this way.”
No trap. How are dairy farmers are not stopping us selling other stuff to other countries.
It’s because of our farmers NZ is still a first world country with a first world healthy system. We don’t have much manufacturing, and what else do we sell to the world?
China is the largest trading partner to most countries in the world , including Australia, so NZ is in no different a situation to any other country.
” We don’t want to be controlled by China or America ”
Bomber like the oligarchy that controls this country including NZ Dairy we have no say or control over it.
Muldoon once said regarding ANZUS New Zealanders don’t vote on defense issues. His comments included the military or foreign policy.
If anyone was in any doubt about who controls New Zealand then that is now abundantly clear two years in to this governments term.
New Zealanders have voted to cede control to whoever has the money and resources including their own policy agenda.
“Look at how National, ACT and NZF ram through deregulation policy for their donors interests.
Look at how the Agricultural Industry bought and paid for the environmental policy under this government!
Look at how ACT destroyed 2000 local jobs for school lunches so they could give the multi hundred million dollar contract to a large international transnational.
Look at how the NZ Initiative plus the Atlas Network are pushing the deregulation agenda for National, ACT and NZFs donors interests!
” Look at how the Agricultural Industry bought and paid for the environmental policy under this government!
Look at how ACT destroyed 2000 local jobs for school lunches so they could give the multi hundred million dollar contract to a large international transnational.
Look at how the NZ Initiative plus the Atlas Network are pushing the deregulation agenda for National, ACT and NZFs donors interests!
” New Zealand’s “soft corruption” has been called out this week by leading economics professor Robert MacCulloch of the University of Auckland. He’s launched some heavy broadsides at the way that political and business elites in this country are ruining the economy and the political process by their dysfunctional hold on power in which dissent and debate are suppressed using patronage and threats.
MacCulloch’s criticisms come about in the announced closure of his website, which he says is due to pressure from Cabinet Ministers and others. His main complaint seems to be that New Zealand is run by a “chumocracy” of mates whose “cronyism” is leading to national decline.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2025/06/15/national-act-and-nzf-represent-the-privatisation-of-democracy/
unfortunately our navy dei hires cant use our new submarine to deter the chinese boats.
Why don’t you publish your real name to these opinions Trumpet? We know why don’t we? Because you are a right wing coward Trumpet, who is only brave enough to publish behind an anonymous name, and that’s why everything you have to say is just garbage because you don’t have any courage to make these statements publicly.
And we need the Cooks for…what?
Jonzie – Correct…Time to revoke our special status with the Cooks
Total betrayal by the Cooks and we should end all assistance / deport all Cook Islanders who don’t have citizenship etc.
All Cook Islanders do have NZ citizenship. There is only one class of citizenship and short of obtaining citizenship by fraud or deception, the Government cannot simply strip anyone of citizenship
Mark – Nations can revoke citizenship for groups of people if needs to…The Cook Islands can have Cook Islands citizenship.
Sure we can. It just takes a law passed in the house. The cooks wanted their own passport thereby making them cook island citizens as well (duel citizenship), that allows us to do it even without a new law. The international convention just stops us from making them stateless.
Time to start then.
then are you pakeha going to do the shit work they do .Oh thats right we will swap them out for Indians and the 10 depenents they are now allowed to bring .
O my Hod such racism all over the place. I am not sure what stopping funding to the Cooks will do as leverage to persuade the Cooks to stay alongside NZ. China will fill that gap easily. We have not been smart or good operators in the Pacific and treat the Islanders like slaves when they come here as workers on those seasonal schemes to work in orchards snd in the fields.