New Zealand, Cook Islands sign defence pact

New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a defence and security pact on Thursday, easing more than a year of tension between the Pacific nations over the Cook Islands’ deepening ties with China.

The fraught diplomatic standoff that prompted Wellington to pause millions of dollars in aid to Avarua was hardly a clash of geopolitical heavyweights: New Zealand has a population of 5 million, while the Cook Islands has 15,000 people.

But the lengthy freeze gripped Pacific observers because it reflected the struggle confronting tiny island nations with close ties to Western countries such as New Zealand and Australia as they seek to balance their traditional alliances with overtures from Beijing.

In the new declaration, the Cook Islands pledged New Zealand would be its “partner of choice regarding defense and security matters,” apparently quashing the prospect, feared by Wellington, of China occupying the role. It resolved “ambiguity” about the two countries’ existing ties, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

When Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown inked a comprehensive strategic partnership between his country and China during a visit to Beijing in February 2025, it provoked alarm in Wellington because Brown wouldn’t divulge the content of the deal first, a refusal New Zealand officials said could have security implications. The Cook Islands is a self-governing country with a 60-year free association relationship to New Zealand, which means it’s defended by New Zealand’s military and citizens can live and work freely in New Zealand.

The links require Cook Islands leaders to consult with Wellington on deals with other countries that might affect New Zealand. Brown defended his decision not to disclose the contents of his pact with China, which he said was unnecessary under his country’s existing accords with Wellington.

New Zealand — which is the Cook Islands’ biggest benefactor — froze millions of dollars in aid over the episode, although it wasn’t a large amount of the total funding that Wellington contributes. That aid would now flow again, Peters told reporters during a visit to the Cook Islands on Thursday, where he and Brown signed the new agreement.

“This declaration seeks to remove previous ambiguity about the nature of the relationship between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, especially as it pertains to defense and security,” Peters said. The Cook Islands, an archipelago of 15 islands in the vast South Pacific Ocean, is among many small nations in the region to be courted by Beijing, which has offered aid, loans and deals throughout the Pacific to increase its sway.

The sparsely populated South Pacific is considered strategically important and many of its countries, including the Cook Islands, have large and lucrative exclusive economic zones, where Brown is exploring prospects for mining of deep-sea minerals.

“The strategic environment we face is more complex and contested today than at any other point since New Zealand and the Cook Islands formed our free association relationship in 1965,” Peters said Thursday.