Cook Islands celebrates 60 years of self-governance amid growing rift with NZ

The biggest event in the Cook Islands calendar is currently underway, marking 60 years of free association with New Zealand.

It comes at a tense point in the relationship, or as New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters would put it, a "constitutional crisis", largely stemming from what Wellington viewed as a lack of consultation over agreements Prime Minister Mark Brown signed with China in February.

The Cook Islands had been administered by New Zealand since 1901, and in 1965, the two entered into free association.

This means the island nation is self-governing, although New Zealand is responsible for assistance with foreign affairs, disasters and defence.

In 2001, New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a Joint Centenary Declaration, which requires the two to "consult regularly on defence and security issues" - which is what the government has felt has been breached.

But problems stem back further than the China deals. In October last year, Brown proposed a Cook Islands passport as part of the 60-year celebrations.

He viewed it as an "internal matter", no different to how New Zealanders can carry dual passports.

Wellington felt otherwise. The full extent was shown through documents released to 1News under the Official Information Act (OIA) which said the country can have its passport but at the cost of New Zealand citizenship.

Brown dropped the idea and told Cook Islands News in December that New Zealand "bared its teeth".

Shortly after on Christmas day 2024, the Cook Islands-registered vessel Eagle S was seized in the Baltic Sea by Finnish authorities, who believed the vessel severed the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia.

The vessel was thought to be linked to Russia's shadow fleet, which seeks to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.

OIA documents released to RNZ Pacific show high levels of concern from New Zealand surrounding the ship and the Cook Islands shipping registry.

In the lead up to the Cook Islands signing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China and other agreements, Brown said there was "no need for New Zealand to sit in the room with us".

He said New Zealand was advised on the agreements but did not need to be consulted to the level they were asking for.

Brown returned home from China to a vote of no confidence - that failed - and protesters marching towards parliament, emotional that their leader was ruining their relationship with the nation's closest friend.

But some in the country supported Brown, feeling the move was a natural progression of the country having more autonomy, which has been happening slowly since the Cook Islands first entered into free association.

A recent example, in September 2023, the United States recognised the Cook Islands as a "sovereign and independent state".

However, New Zealand has drawn red lines - United Nations membership is only available to fully independent and sovereign countries is one of the big ones. An issue that had been floated by Brown and previous prime ministers, including his predecessor, Henry Puna.

In June, New Zealand paused $18.2m in development funding, citing the lack of consultation it received from China as the reason.

Brown called the move "patronising" and "inconsistent with modern partnership".

"The relationship between the Cook Islands and New Zealand is defined by partnership, not paternalism," he told his parliament in June.

Last week Brown said if New Zealand could not afford to fund the country's national infrastructure investment plan - billed at $650 million - the Cook Islands would need to look elsewhere.

Peters in return, has said Brown is making it harder to restore trust with each "mischaracterisation of the New Zealand approach".

He also challenged Brown to hold a referendum on independence from New Zealand.

Peters in an interview with RNZ Pacific this week, said the problems in the relationship are all from the Cook Islands side.

"Members of parliament, people like me come and go, and governments come and go, and ministers of foreign affairs come and go, but the enduring relationship with the people of Cook Islands is what we are constitutionally required to maintain," Peters said.

Brown has made several comments suggesting a double standard from Aotearoa and that the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration requires New Zealand to consult the Cook Islands on its dealings.

Peters said that has never been the case.

"That was never the arrangement, to construe it as being the arrangement now is done without any basis. If you're going to make a claim, you've got to lay down the foundations of that claim and that's the difference of opinion, and we're clearing it up," he said.

The agreements the Cook Islands signed with China have been made public and Brown has maintained there is nothing in them that could cause concern.

Geopolitical commentators have suggested that they could undermine New Zealand's national security by having China involved in maritime infrastructure like ports.

But Peters said if he has any issues they were for "our private conversation with the Cook Islands government" and that "the value and the content and the dimension, the breadth and the depth of the agreements" was not what the issue is about, with the focus being on the lack of consultation.

Some commentary from academics has been critical of aid being used as a bargaining chip and the pause could even push the Cook Islands closer to China, which Peters doesn't believe.

"I am very confident that we have taken the right steps, after serious consideration," he said.

"It is with the greatest regret, we find ourselves having [to pause funding] but I've got an obligation to the Cook Island people and to the New Zealand taxpayer."

Peters said he was "not going to speculate" if there would be further funding pauses and labelled questions from RNZ Pacific as "defeatist" when he was asked what the consequences to the Cook Islands would be if the relationship was not mended.

The political turmoil feels far away at the current constitutional celebrations called Te Maeva Nui.

"We're just celebrating us as a nation right now, so, yeah, none of that matters right now," said Teriimaevarua Marsters, who is leading the team from Palmerston Island.

The small atoll is only accessible by boat and has a population of 28 people, 16 of them have made the trip to be in Rarotonga.

"It's a huge deal, because once every ten years we come together as all, for us out there we get to come together with other islands, within the Cook Islands."

Terry Piri who works at the Ministry of Finance, was setting up a stand that's selling special minted coins marking the big 60th.

"You can see there's the turtle and the fish travelling together in the ocean, that's [because] we're people of the ocean," Piri said while showing the coin.

Like Marsters, Piri is not interested in the government-to-government problems with New Zealand at the moment.

"For me, I'm here celebrating, and people are here celebrating, so we're enjoying it. We don't worry about the political side. Let the politicians look after that side."

At the hostel housing people from the Northern Group island Pukapuka, team leader Ruarau Iakobo has no interest in being fully independent.

"We the people, we don't like that, we don't want to separate our relationship with New Zealand. We want to be with New Zealand because they've looked after us for 60 years."