Credit where it’s due – well done Winston on Cook Islands reconnect

Winston Peters and the Cook Islands reconnect matters because it shows New Zealand still understands one basic Pacific truth: if we neglect our own whānau, someone else will move in with deeper pockets and harder power.

Winston Peters signs defence and security declaration with Cook Islands PM Mark Brown

New Zealand will resume about $29.8 million in annual funding to the Cook Islands as the two countries sign a defence and security declaration.

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Foreign Minister Winston Peters says “cousins fall out now and again,” but the recent conversations between the two nations had been “seriously positive.”

He said it wasn’t a victory for anybody, if anything it was a “triumph of the diplomatic ambience of the Pacific people.”

“We’re cousins, and we sorted our cousins out, them and us and vice versa,” said Peters.

Signed by the New Zealand Foreign Minister and the Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, the declaration comes more than a year after Brown formally signed a strategic deal with China.

New Zealand had not been informed of the details or consulted ahead of time, despite the Cook Islands as a realm country being expected to do so on constitutional matters, defence and security.

Brown has maintained that expectation did not extend to the China deal, and that the deal did not include defence matters.

However, it did include cooperation with China on ocean infrastructure and transport.

Peters’ office had warned such a lack of transparency could have significant security implications.

Peters said there had been recent ups and downs between the governments, “in the last couple of years, we have worked through a series of disagreements, and they’ve been challenging for all of us.”

“As I said, it’s caused anxiety and uncertainty – so its with considerable satisfaction that we stand before you today with some excellent news, announcing the agreement of this defence and security declaration,” said Peters.

This new declaration aims to clear up any ambiguity, setting out a shared understanding of the nature of both countries’ relationship regarding defence and security of the Cook Islands.

RNZ

I’m the first to put the boot into Winston Peters, but credit where it’s due: he has pulled out all the stops to bring the Cook Islands back into the whānau.

Winston Peters at his most effective

This is Winston at his best.

The position things were left in was untenable from the point of view of New Zealand’s agency over our Realm.

The dual capacity of Chinese-built infrastructure there could have quickly ushered in a far greater Chinese maritime presence inside our economic zone.

That projection of influence is unacceptable to New Zealand.

New Zealand can’t neglect the Pacific again

Winston has worked hard to rebuild that relationship, and it should be seen as a wake-up call in terms of our relationship with the Pacific. If we want to ensure our bonds of whānau are deeper than China’s pockets, we actually have to act like it.

Because if New Zealand wants the Pacific to remain family, it has to start acting like family before Beijing starts acting like banker, builder and gatekeeper.