The funding cut leaves the Cook Islands facing a sudden financial shortfall, prompting warnings that Wellington's approach could backfire What began as a quiet series of infrastructure deals between ...

Cook Island's Prime Minister Mark Brown says any new agreement with NZ can't "wind back the clock" to the colonial era. NZ and Cook Islands remain at loggerheads over contentious China deal. Cook ...

Why a deal with China has strained New Zealand’s ties with the Cook Islands - Beijing’s growing influence in the South ...

Opposition has grown in the Cook Islands to any threat its pacts with China pose to close ties with New Zealand, and Brown’s government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament due after Feb. 25 ...

New Zealand has what is known as a "free association" relationship with the Cook Islands, and helps the latter with defence and foreign affairs. In the last three years, Wellington provided NZ$194m in ...

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 13, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. [AP Photo/Sergei Grits] In mid-February, Cook Islands ...

Cook Islands' Prime Minister Mark Brown said on Thursday he had held discussions with institutions on marine science, climate resilience and economic cooperation so far during a trip to China that ...

New Zealand has halted more than $18 million in development assistance to its realm country. But the island's prime minister said his government was "aware" it was coming.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is visiting Beijing this week to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the world’s second-largest economy in the latest sign of China’s expanding ...

FILE - Cook Islands Prime Minister, and outgoing Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mark Brown, speaks at the opening of the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on ...

The Cook Islands, population 15,000, has a large and lucrative exclusive economic zone, with Brown’s government exploring prospects for deep sea mining activity.