Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – New Zealand has stopped millions of dollars funding for the Cook Islands because of the “width and content” of agreements that the smaller Pacific nation has concluded with China, officials said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Christopher Lukson, who is on his first official visit to China, said the Cook Islands were not transparent and open about their overall strategic partnership with China.
“We stopped some of the money for help until we could get clarity on these problems,” he said in Shanghai.
Relationships between the smaller nations of the Pacific Island and their regional supporters Australia and New Zealand have stumbled in recent years as Beijing has been seen to increase its power in the region. New Zealand’s last move was astounding as it reflects increasing friction between two countries with strong constitutional ties with their different approaches to manage relations with Beijing. The Cook Islands are self -governing, but they share military and passports with New Zealand.
Cook Prime Minister Mark Brown told parliamentary lawmakers on Thursday that the funding was not “stopped, it was stopped” and downplayed the importance of the amount of frozen. New Zealand is the largest financial for Cook.
Freeze appears when the NZ leader visits China
The news of $ 18.2 million New Zealand dollars ($ 11 million) came only when Cook Island’s news store saw its brief mention in a government budget document. It will probably be difficult for the luxury that his President Jinping must meet this week.
Beijing, who said in February that the deals were not intended to antagonize New Zealand, defended their partnership with the country of 15 islands and 15,000 people.
“Both New Zealand and Cook Islands are important partners of China,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Goo Jiacun in Beijing. “The cooperation of the China-Cuk island is not aimed at a third country, nor should it be hindered or restricted by a third party.”
In a report submitted to Cook Parliament this week, the Committee of Public Accounts registered “concern” to reduce $ 10 million in New Zealand ($ 6 million) in the government’s bag, the first known mention of finance freezing. The money was intended for the “main support from the sector” that finances the health, education and tourism sectors of the Cook Islands, with Wellington audits about how it is spent.
The money is part of $ 200 million aimed at Cook Islands from New Zealand over the last three years as part of an almost 60-year free association CD. Relationships require consultations from the leaders of the Cook Islands with Wellington on agreements with other countries that may affect New Zealand.
Pacts with China were the first serious test of these rules.
The deals caused horror in Wellington
The Cook Islands have a large and lucrative exceptional economic zone, with the Brown government exploring the prospects for deep -sea production. Cook Islanders can freely live and work in New Zealand, which encouraged alarm about national security in Wellington when employees learned of a raft of agreements that Brown signed in February.
The agreements did not promise a cooperation between the security between the Beijing and Cook Islands, but they promised more funding from China for infrastructure projects and educational scholarships. Not all the documents that Brown signed were published publicly.
New Zealand Minister spokesman Peters said that on Thursday, the agreements had illustrated a “comprehension” between governments “for what our special relations of a free association requires a consultation to ensure the preservation of shared interests.
The “width and content” of deals and lack of consultation with Wellington for them caused a review of Cook Islands, said Peters’ office.
“Therefore, New Zealand pauses these payments and will also not consider significant new funding, while the Cook Islands government does not take specific steps to repair relations and restore confidence,” the speaker said.
PM Cook Islands has rejected fears
Brown said in February that deals did not “replace our long -standing relations with New Zealand, Australia and others, but more recently, they supplement them, ensuring that we have a diverse portfolio of partnerships.” The news of the agreements caused protests in the capital Avarua, led by opposition MPs.
On Thursday, Brown made a focus on a visit to China to Luxon, stressing New Zealand’s leader reports about the increased trade in Beijing’s requirements and a more free visa for Chinese travelers. The leader of the Cook island said he had trusted any agreements that the luxury of Beijing would “not be a threat to the security of people in the Cook Islands”, although his government does not know their content.
New Zealand’s latest action was “a completely avoidable consequence of the strategic flirtation of the Cook Islands with China,” says Mihai Sora, an analyst at Australia -based Thinktank Lowy Institute.
“It is a little sweet to register with a comprehensive strategic partnership with China in 2025 and pretend to have no strategic angle for Beijing, given all the growing evidence of abuse of China in the Pacific,” he said.
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The writer of the Associated Press Ken Morizugu in Beijing has contributed to this report.