Wellington says it has paused payment of some funding until Pacific island nation takes steps to ‘repair the relationship and restore trust’
New Zealand has halted millions of dollars in funding to the Cook Islands over the “breadth and content” of agreements the smaller Pacific nation made with China, officials from the New Zealand foreign minister’s office has said.
New Zealand, which is the Cook Islands biggest funder, won’t consider any new money for the nation until the relationship improves, a spokesperson for foreign minister Winston Peters told the Associated Press on Thursday. Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Relations between other Pacific islands and their larger regional backers Australia and New Zealand have stumbled over ties with China in recent years as Beijing has vied to increase its Pacific sway.
But the latest move by New Zealand’s government was striking because it reflected growing friction between two countries with strong constitutional ties – Cook Islands is self-governing but shares a military and passports with New Zealand – over two countries’ diverging approaches to managing relations with Beijing.
