Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Geoffrey Miller: Geopolitical Analyst on the potential deal between the Cook Islands and China

Transcript

Geoffrey Miller: Geopolitical Analyst on the potential deal between the Cook Islands and China · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Cook Island's Prime Minister, Mike Brown is traveling to Beijing today,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: where he's expected to sign a major partnership deal between
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the Cook Islands and China. Our government, of course, has
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: been completely blindsided by this, and there's still questions around
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: whether constitutional arrangements have been breached. And many of the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: residents of the Cook Islands are also saying, what's in
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  Speaker 1: the deal, but Mike's not telling us. International relations expert
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  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Millard joins me now, hallo, Jeffrey, good morning, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what's in the deal?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we do know some things that are in the deal.
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  Speaker 2: Mark Brown has said in his interview with TV and
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  Speaker 2: Z that it will be an economics focused deal that
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  Speaker 2: will not contain defense and security. It seems likely it's
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  Speaker 2: going to be a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with China.
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand has one of its own. It has its
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  Speaker 2: own comprehensive strategic partnership China agreement that it's signed with
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  Speaker 2: China way back in twenty fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: But this is acceptable that this deal has seemingly remained
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  Speaker 1: mostly secret to both the Cook Islands people and the
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand government.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well, look, Winston Peters is not very happy about it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: You would have to say put it mildly. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: they put out quite an extraordinary statement Virus spokesperson yesterday
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  Speaker 2: saying that New Zealand and the Corck Islands are not
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  Speaker 2: seeing eye to eye on a number of issues. And
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  Speaker 2: normally these kinds of things that dealt with behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 2: but this is now blown up in the media. I
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  Speaker 2: think some of these problems really are homegrown though in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. They go back over across success of New
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Zealand governments. New Zealand sign and agreement back in two
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  Speaker 2: thousand and one that said the Cock Islands was a
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  Speaker 2: sovereign and independent state but also should consult on foreign
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  Speaker 2: affairs issues. I think Mark Brown's argument will be that
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  Speaker 2: he has consulted, and certainly there have been regular consultations
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: between the Corck Islands and New Zealand. This agreement is
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  Speaker 2: not about defense and security. There was a special agreement
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  Speaker 2: last year signed between the Corcklands and New Zealand which
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  Speaker 2: required a consultation on defense and security. This isn't about that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: It's going to be about fisheries on an Into Ireland
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  Speaker 2: ferry on deep sea mining in the end of Coock Islands,
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  Speaker 2: like a lot of Pacific states, simply want development.
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  Speaker 1: And if he goes to beating and he signs on
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  Speaker 1: the dotted line and he gets the fairies and he
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  Speaker 1: gets the deep sea mining and all that sort of thing,
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  Speaker 1: is that a done deal or do we have the
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  Speaker 1: ability to veto it?
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't think New Zealand has any real ability
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  Speaker 2: of veto Look. I think the simple message for New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand here is that if New Zealand doesn't want Cock
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  Speaker 2: Island's going off to China and signing agreement and east
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  Speaker 2: the front up was the cash itself, and that was
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  Speaker 2: very much the message from Mark Brown that New Zealand's
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  Speaker 2: only given sixty million dollars of grant money in the
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  Speaker 2: last three years and really the onus is on New
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Zealand to pay up. And I think we could actually
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  Speaker 2: have a useful cooperation here. You remember New Zealand has
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  Speaker 2: good friendly relations with China as well. New Zealand is
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  Speaker 2: cooperated with China and the Cock Islands in the past
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  Speaker 2: on building water infrastructure in Raratonga. So there's no reason
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  Speaker 2: why New Zealand can't get together with China and Cock
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  Speaker 2: Islands and develop some projects together and work together. Because
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  Speaker 2: this is all rather unedifying, and this is turning far
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  Speaker 2: turning into a diplomatic debarcle. It was meant to be
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  Speaker 2: a celebration this year of sixty years of ties of
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  Speaker 2: the Cook Islands and free association with New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: Well said Jeffrey Miller, of course, international relations expert. There
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  Speaker 1: are some that say, of course, that Mike Brown is
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  Speaker 1: doing this because of the proposal of a separate Cook
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  Speaker 1: Islands passport, us taking away the New Zealand passport. Certainly,
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  Speaker 1: I love the word unedifying. The whole thing is rather unedifying.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:28
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• 3:32
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