Cook Islands ‘always free to choose’ to be independent: New Zealand
Wellington seeking details of Cook Islands-China pacts to ‘analyze how they impact our vital national interests,’ says foreign minister
ISTANBUL
Cook Islands is “always free to choose” to be independent of New Zealand, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Wednesday.
The statement from Peters came amid tensions between Wellington and the self-governing South Pacific island nation that signed a pact with China last week.
Details of the pact remain scant, raising questions in New Zealand, with which the Cook Islands, home to a little over 15,000 people, maintains free association, sharing a head of state and citizenship rights.
“Unlike the people of Samoa, the people of the Cook Islands have never opted for their country to be fully independent from New Zealand—though they are of course always free to choose to do so,” Peters told the Pacific Island Political Science Association in Wellington, according to his office.
Samoa was the first Pacific nation to achieve independence from New Zealand in 1962.
Referring to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed between Cook Islands and China, Peters said Wellington and the self-governing nation had no prior “meaningful consultation” over the details of the deals signed last week.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, who signed the deals with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, has criticized New Zealand for seeking excessive oversight of his nation’s agreements with China.
Peters said once New Zealand “has seen the text of all of the agreements that were signed, it will need to undertake its own careful analysis of how they impact our vital national interests.”
According to the New Zealand Foreign Ministry website: "The Cook Islands has an international legal personality and conducts its own international relations, including establishing diplomatic relationships with many countries."
The top Kiwi diplomat emphasized Wellington needs to "reset the government-to-government relationship" with Cook Islands.
"Resetting and formally restating the parameters of the relationship is not a small task. But it is one which we are confident we can meet—powered by the history of goodwill and common bonds between New Zealand and the Cook Islands people," Peters added.
