{"id":126949,"date":"2025-11-09T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/126949\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:18:09","slug":"new-zealand-reluctantly-extends-pause-in-cook-islands-funding-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/126949\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand \u2018reluctantly\u2019 extends pause in Cook Islands funding \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This article was first published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/578329\/new-zealand-reluctantly-extends-pause-in-cook-islands-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/578329\/new-zealand-reluctantly-extends-pause-in-cook-islands-funding\">RNZ.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">New Zealand has extended its pause on direct payments to the Cook Islands government, after it signed partnership agreements with China earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the total amount of paused funding was NZ$29.8 million and covered two financial years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe took this step reluctantly and after careful consideration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cDirect funding to another government relies on a high degree of trust. The Cook Islands government breached New Zealand\u2019s trust through a series of actions that are well known.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The spokesperson said New Zealand\u2019s concerns about the Cook Islands actions \u201cneed to be addressed and trust restored, before we can release this funding\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cSignificant development assistance to the Cook Islands continues, including in areas such as health, education, governance, security and humanitarian support. This is being delivered through New Zealand agencies and regional programmes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNew Zealand remains deeply committed to the Cook Islands and its people. We share a unique constitutional relationship and the people of the Cook Islands are New Zealand citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters informed the Cook Islands government of the initial decision to pause funding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/564578\/new-zealand-halts-cook-islands-funding-in-stoush-over-china\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in early June<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Cook Islands operates in free association with New Zealand. It governs its own affairs, but New Zealand provides assistance with foreign affairs (upon request), disaster relief, and defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration signed between the two nations requires them to consult each other on defence and security, which Peters said had not been lived up to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In February, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown signed a \u201ccomprehensive strategic partnership\u201d with China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">New Zealand reviewed its development programme in the Cook Islands as a result, and in early June informed Brown the funding would be paused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">By RNZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published on RNZ. New Zealand has extended its pause on direct payments to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[607,35008,4756,738,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-126949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-cook-islands","10":"tag-foreign","11":"tag-funding","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}