Read the latest news from regional and global sources, presenting different voices and perspectives.
Cook Islands establishes Destination Stewardship Advisory Group
Cook Island News
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January 27, 2025
Tourism Cook Islands chief executive Karla Eggelton, Cook Islands Tourism Corporation Board,: Chairman Ewan Smith with Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism Mark Brown, Assistant Minister for Tourism Tai Herman and also pictured are Cook Islands...
Avarua protestors demand transparency in the China-Cook Islands agreement
Global Voices
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March 4, 2025
Protest in front of the parliament building of Cook Islands. Screenshot from the YouTube video of 1News. Fair use. Around 400 people joined a rare protest in front of the parliament building in the Cook Islands capital of Avarua on February 18,...
Exclusive with the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown
CGTN
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27:13 Editor's Note: Pacific islands countries are increasingly looking to seal partnerships to enhance cooperation across key sectors, including trade, tourism, infrastructure, climate resilience and renewable energy, as well as seabed minerals...
Island Hopping: the PRC’s Quest for Strategic Maritime Influence and Resource Security through the Cook Islands Partnership
The Jamestown Foundation
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Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Cook Islands signed two agreements in February that extend Beijing’s engagement in the South Pacific to include deep-sea exploration and dual-use maritime infrastructure. Beijing...
As Pacific Islands Caution Against Seabed Mining, the US Prepares to Trash the Rules
The Diplomat
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May 16, 2025
In recent years, deep-sea mining has emerged as a polarizing issue in the Pacific Islands, and the nascent industry is not yet regulated. Now the region is contending with another challenge: the potential breakdown of international rules that...
What Cook Islanders think about their country’s relationship with China
The Spinoff
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February 27, 2025
Sixty years on from gaining independence, debate is raging in the Cook Islands about its political relationships with other countries. “Cook Islands deal with China takes NZ Government by surprise!” “Is Cook Islands-China deal shipshape?” “Crisis...
Donald Trump’s deep-sea mining order condemned as ‘militarisation’ of Pacific
Cook Island News
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May 14, 2025
Louisa Castledine, a spokesperson for ocean advocacy collective, Ocean Ancestors. 25021317 United States President Donald Trump’s latest executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry is a ‘contemporary militarisation of the...
IRSA: China And The Cook Islands: Building The 'Belt And Road' Through Equality, Mutual Benefit, And Win-Win Cooperation
MENAFN
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February 27, 2025
(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) New York, Feb. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to International Relations Study Association(IRSA), on the afternoon of February 14, 2025, during the closing of the 9th Asian Winter Games, Chinese Premier Li...
After Weeks Of Diplomatic Silence On China Issue, Cook Islands PM Writes To New Zealand
MENAFN
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February 26, 2025
(MENAFN- IANS) Wellington, Feb 26 (IANS) Mark Brown, the Prime Minister of Cook Islands, wrote to his New Zealand counterpart, Christopher Luxon, on Wednesday after weeks of diplomatic silence. The two nations had a fallout when Brown signed a...
Opinion: Cook Islands-China deals: ‘The devil is in the detail’
Cook Island News
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February 25, 2025
Merita Tuari’i. SUPPLIED/25022420 While the Action Plan 2025-2030 for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and a couple of MoU’s between the Cook Islands and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been signed, Cook Islands local...
Winston Peters Needs To Address Cook Islands-China Deal During Meeting – Helen Clark
Pacific Scoop
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February 24, 2025
Article – RNZ The Foreign Minister needs to restate the relationship with the Cook Islands during talks with his Chinese counterpart, former prime minister Helen Clark says.Morning Report Foreign Minister Winston Peters needs to restate New...
Peters to seek answers from China over warships, Cook Islands deal
RNZ
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February 25, 2025
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Beijing for three high-level meetings this week. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Foreign Minister Winston Peters will seek answers on the issues of Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea and a controversial agreement...
Peters needs to address Cook Islands-China deal during meeting - Clark
RNZ
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February 24, 2025
Winston Peters and Helen Clark. Photo: Nick Monro Foreign Minister Winston Peters needs to restate New Zealand's relationship with the Cook Islands during talks with his Chinese counterpart, former prime minister Helen Clark says. Peters arrives...
The Great Deep-Sea Mining Debate
The National Interest - Washington D.C.
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May 13, 2025
The debate pits those who stress the need to wean the United States off the Chinese near-monopoly on rare earth minerals against those who underscore the immense environmental costs of mining the seabed. With public attention focused on exploring...
Deep-sea mining | Can Pacific nations regulate its risks?
The Fiji Times
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May 13, 2025
On April 24, 2025, the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14285 mandating federal agencies to expedite permits for seabed mining under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980. Mr Trump wants to establish the US as a global...
China-Cook Islands deal raises security concerns for NZ
The New Zealand Herald
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February 23, 2025
“These can be considered to be critical infrastructure, or strategic infrastructure, and there are national security implications for New Zealand, and for the Cook Islands, as a consequence of this development. “China, through commercial actors,...
Indigenous Kanaks support New Caledonia’s 50-year ban on seabed mining
Asia Pacific Report
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May 13, 2025
By Andrew Mathieson New Caledonia has imposed a 50-year ban on deep-sea mining across its entire maritime zone in a rare and sweeping move that places the French Pacific territory among the most restricted exploration areas on the planet’s waters....
On the ground in the Cook Islands, controversial deal with China stirs debate
The Guardian
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February 22, 2025
Standing under the shade of trees outside the Cook Islands parliament this week, Fe’ena Syme-Buchanan questioned a controversial deal signed with China that has sparked concern across the Pacific country. The photographer from Rarotonga feels...
China secures maritime presence in Cook Islands
1News
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A day after China warned its three military ships would be live weapons testing between New Zealand and Australia, the Cook Islands has today released a controversial agreement indicating Beijing has secured a maritime presence there. The...
Protest in Cook Islands over deal with China on economy and seabed mining
NBC News
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February 18, 2025
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A strategic partnership deal between China and the Cook Islands spans areas from deep-sea mining to education scholarships but excludes security ties, a document released by the Pacific island nation’s government showed....