The New Zealand High Commission in the Cook Islands has took to social media with a statement on their offical Facebook to express significant concern over the lack of consultation regarding the proposed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) between the Cook Islands and China.
Despite repeated requests, including a direct appeal from New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the Cook Islands government has not shared the text of the CSP or engaged in meaningful consultation before Prime Minister Mark Brown’s departure to China.
Statement released by NZ High Commission in Rarotonga, Cook Islands
We can confirm, as Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown publicly stated yesterday, that he and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters spoke on the phone on Friday afternoon New Zealand time.
During the phone call, Prime Minister Brown asked the Deputy Prime Minister what further information New Zealand required to assuage our concerns about the lack of consultation regarding the proposed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Cook Islands and China.
The Deputy Prime Minister, in the phone call and in writing within hours of the call, repeated to the Prime Minister a months-old request that the Government of the Cooks Islands share with New Zealand the contents of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and other agreements that Prime Minister Brown intends to sign in China, in line with the requirement for consultation in the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration between New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
The Deputy Prime Minister also indicated to Prime Minister Brown that New Zealand can only fully verify the extent to which the proposed CSP with China presents risk to our core national interest by seeing the proposed text of the CSP and any other associated documents under discussion and by being given sufficient time to analyse them before they are agreed.
The Deputy Prime Minister indicated that consultation was only meaningful if it happened before an agreement was reached, not after the fact.
The Deputy Prime Minister also reminded Prime Minister Brown of his government’s repeated undertakings to meet its consultation obligations with respect to the CSP. This included the Prime Minister’s personal assurance, in earlier correspondence, that the Cook Islands respected its mutual security obligations as integral to its free association relationship with New Zealand and that he had directed his officials to meet with New Zealand counterparts to consider how New Zealand concerns could be addressed in a mutually satisfactory way.
As of Sunday afternoon, with Prime Minister Brown having now left the Cook Islands for China, no reply to the Deputy Prime Minister’s further request for fulsome consultation has been received. The time has now passed.
We therefore view the Cook Islands as having failed to properly consult New Zealand with respect to any agreements it plans to sign this coming week in China.
This lack of consultation is a matter of significant concern to the New Zealand government. We look forward to continuing discussions with the Government of the Cooks Islands on this important matter in the coming days and weeks.
New Zealand deeply values its relationship with the Government and people of the Cook Islands. Cook Islanders are treasured members of the New Zealand family. The Deputy Prime Minister will continue to defend and protect the interests of Cook Islanders, in the context of New Zealand protecting the security and prosperity of all New Zealand citizens and of the Realm of New Zealand.
New Zealand values its relationship with the Cook Islands and remains committed to protecting the mutual security and prosperity of both nations. Further discussions on this matter are anticipated in the coming days.
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