Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will not attend the milestone event in Rarotonga, which will celebrate the Cook Islands’ six decades of self-governance in free association with NZ. RNZ Pacific
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told local media he had requested a meeting with New Zealand’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister regarding the funding pause, but was declined.
It comes as a second round of funding to the realm nation has been paused by Aotearoa, bringing the total funds held to nearly $30 million over two years.
Brown has declined an interview with RNZ Pacific.
In a written statement, a spokesperson for Brown said the government continues to engage in good faith with New Zealand and that discussions are ongoing, “so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time”.
However, speaking to Cook Islands Television (CITV) in Cook Islands Māori, Brown said he had received criticism for not meeting with New Zealand’s prime minister or foreign minister.
“I want to confirm to you all that I did send a letter to the prime minister of New Zealand and [New Zealand foreign minister] Winston to arrange a meeting between leaders, New Zealand’s leader and myself,” Brown, addressing Cook Islanders direclty, told CITV.
“I wanted to elevate these discussions to the prime minister’s level. But they sent their response, they wanted the discussions to be done between our officials.”
He said the Cook Islands was doing what New Zealand requested by leaving the meeting for officials to come up with solutions.
Uncertainty over what the problem is
The disagreement between the two governments stem from partnership agreements that Cook Islands signed with China at the beginning of the year.
The New Zealand government believed it should have been consulted over the agreements, while Brown disagreed.
Brown told CITV the agreements signed with China are “all over and done with”, and New Zealand has had an in-depth look at them.
“There is a part of the document we signed that [New Zealand] say they have a problem with but they have not been able to confirm with us what exactly it is that they have a problem with.”
Kiwis ‘running’ to Oz, Cook Islands economy ‘all good’
Brown said his government is able to cover the amount that New Zealand has put on pause because of a strong economy, driven by the tourism sector.
He said the money New Zealand had paused would normally be disbursed to education and health.
“Looking to New Zealand, they are having issues with the state of their economy, it’s going backwards, the people are running away from New Zealand for Australia to find better opportunities.
“But our status however, it’s all good, hence we were able to afford to cover the amount of money that we did not receive from New Zealand.”
Relationship between to nations ‘not like it was back in the day’
Brown said the relationship with New Zealand had evolved.
“For our relationship today, it is not like it was back in the day where New Zealand was like a parent, and we were the child,” Brown said.
“We have reached 60 years of self-governance; we are our own people, we have our own land, we have our own ocean, our own being, our relationship now is the relationship between friends, not of a parent and child.”
Brown said he wanted the friendship to grow and not go backwards – where New Zealand spoke for the country on the world stage.
“The younger generations and their young ones, they are able to fulfill roles that were once held by westerners or New Zealand… they can fly our flag, be our voice, out there in the world.”
But Brown said he did not want to change the free-association relationship between the two countries, which he has always maintained. It comes after several calls from New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for Brown to hold an independence referendum.
“When looking at the state of this relationship, what we are pushing firmly for is that this relationship continues, and is strengthened, continuing on into the future,” Brown said.
Peters’ response
A spokesperson for Peters said they had nothing further to add to a statement issued last week.
Part of it said there had been a series of constructive discussions between New Zealand and Cook Islands officials aimed at remediating the breach of trust.
“However, Prime Minister Mark Brown continues in his public statements and actions to promote a vision of the New Zealand-Cook Islands relationship which is inconsistent with the free association model,” the statement said.
“He appears to wish for the Cook Islands to reap all the benefits of the free association relationship while being subject to none of the mutual responsibilities.”
A spokesperson for Brown in a statement told RNZ the Cook Islands remain committed to the relationship of free association with New Zealand.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
