If Cooks wants to have their own foreign policy, then let them be independent – of our aid

Radio NZ reports:

The New Zealand government says the Cook Islands has failed to properly consult it on proposed agreements its Prime Minister Mark Brown will be signing in China this week.

Brown has now left for China without further consultation, RNZ understands.

In a statement this afternoon a spokesperson for foreign affairs minister Winston Peters said they could confirm that Brown and Peters spoke over the phone on Friday.

During that conversation Peters impressed upon Brown what further information New Zealand required to assuage our concerns about the lack of consultation regarding the proposed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Cook Islands and China.

“The Deputy Prime Minister, in the phone call and in writing within hours of the call, repeated to the Prime Minister a months-old request that the government of the Cooks Islands share with New Zealand the contents of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and other agreements that Prime Minister Brown intends to sign in China, in line with the requirement for consultation in the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration between New Zealand and the Cook Islands,” the spokesperson said.

New Zealand is meant to be responsible for foreign policy and affairs for the Cook Islands. Now if they want to go from being part of the Realm of New Zealand to being a fully sovereign and independent country, that is their right. But there should be a consequence for that, which is they can start funding their own government, rather than have NZ taxpayers pay for around a quarter of their government.