(Parliament Ministerial Statement by Prime Minister Hon. Mark Brown: Delivered in Parliament on Wednesday 8 April 2026)
Kia orana Mr Speaker, and kia orana to all Members.
I rise today to make a ministerial statement to this House on a matter of national significance: the signing of the Cook Islands –New Zealand Declaration on Defence and Security, and the broader context of our nation’s international standing, security cooperation, and fiscal stewardship.
This Parliament deserves a full account. The people of the Cook Islands deserve to understand not only what has been agreed, but why it matters, how it connects to the challenges we face at home, and what it means for our position in the world. I intend to provide that account today.
Mr Speaker, let me begin where we must always begin: with who we are.
The Cook Islands is a self-governing state. We govern our own affairs. We determine our own laws, our own development priorities, and our own national budget. We engage with the international community, with international organisations, development partners, treaty systems, and bilateral arrangements, as a sovereign actor in our own right. This is not a position we hold tentatively, or by the tolerance of any other government. It is the settled legal and constitutional reality of our nation, chosen by our people and recognised by the international community.
Our free association with Aotearoa New Zealand is one dimension of our international life. It is a relationship we value, and one we have chosen to refresh and reaffirm. But it does not define the limits of our engagement with the world. The Cook Islands has pursued, and will continue to pursue, relationships across the Pacific, with development partners in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and within regional and multilateral institutions, in accordance with our national interest and our people’s wellbeing.
I want to be direct with this House: every decision this Government has taken in the international arena; every partnership pursued, every agreement entered, every position advanced, has been taken with the national interest of the Cook Islands as its first and final consideration. This Government does not apologise for that. Nor should any future government. Acting in the national interest is the most fundamental obligation of those entrusted to govern this country.
Mr Speaker, it is no secret that the government-to-government relationship between the Cook Islands and New Zealand has navigated a period of difficulty. Both governments have acknowledged this openly. What I can report to this House today is that both governments chose to engage that difficulty with seriousness and good faith, and the result is a Declaration that reflects the relationship as it should be: one of respect, reciprocity, and shared purpose.
The Declaration affirms that the Cook Islands engages with New Zealand as a self-governing state in free association, not as a dependent. It establishes clear and agreed expectations around defence and security cooperation, including the Cook Islands’ commitment to engage with New Zealand first on matters of defence and security, and New Zealand’s reciprocal commitment to remain our primary partner in that domain.
It restores the development cooperation funding that had been paused, channelled as it always has been through our financial management frameworks, with priorities set by this Government in alignment with our National Sustainable Development Agenda 2020+.
This is a strong outcome, and I commend the officials and ministers on both sides who brought us here.
Mr Speaker, one of the most practical demonstrations of the potential and value of the Declaration, is the recent formalisation of cooperative arrangements between our Cook Islands Police Service and the Royal New Zealand Navy in the area of maritime security.
Our exclusive economic zone is among the most expansive in the Pacific, covering 2 million square kilometres of ocean. It is our national endowment, a resource of immense scientific, ecological and economic value, and one that faces growing challenges: illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; potential illicit maritime activity; the emerging complexities of seabed minerals governance; and the need for swift humanitarian response capacity across our widely dispersed islands.
The cooperation arrangement between Cook Islands Police and the Royal New Zealand Navy strengthens our ability to meet these challenges. It enables New Zealand Navy personnel to serve onboard Te Kukupa II for short term attachments into the future, affirming the status and quality of our Police Service while at the same time providing practical capacity development and personnel supplementation support for our Police Maritime Unit.
Complimentary to the arrangement between Police and the Navy, the Cook Islands – New Zealand Declaration on Defence and Security opens the door for further discussion on coordinated maritime patrol activities, information sharing, joint training, and enhanced interoperability between the Cook Islands Police Maritime Unit and RNZN vessels operating in our region. This is not an abstract commitment, it is practical, operational, and directly in service of Cook Islanders’ safety and our sovereign interests within our own waters.
I want to be clear to this House about the nature of the Declaration. The Cook Islands does not host foreign military bases. We do not cede our maritime jurisdiction to any partner. This Declaration affirms our executive authority over our own EEZ. It is precisely because we govern our own affairs that we are able to choose our security partnerships and define the terms of our engagement.
Mr Speaker, alongside the milestone signing of the Cook Islands – New Zealand Declaration on Defence and Security, I am pleased to report to this House a development of considerable significance for our national economic standing.
Standard & Poors Global Ratings has upgraded the Cook Islands’ long-term sovereign credit rating from B+ to BB−, with a stable outlook.
This is not a minor administrative adjustment. It is an independent, internationally recognised assessment by one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies of the Cook Islands credit rating — that our fiscal management is sound, our economic trajectory is positive, and our government finances are strengthening.
The upgrade recognises the significant reduction in our net debt position: from a peak of 37.6 percent of GDP in 2022 (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on our economy) to 16.4 percent of GDP in 2025.
S&P expects this to continue falling, settling in the range of 15 to 20 percent of GDP over the following three years.
What does this mean in practice? It means that the Cook Islands, when it accesses international capital markets, does so on more favourable terms. It means that development partners and private investors see a stronger, more creditworthy jurisdiction. It means that our government’s financial credibility is recognised not by those who might have political reasons to flatter us, but by an independent agency whose entire professional purpose is accurate assessment.
This Government has consistently maintained that the Cook Islands is not an economy dependent on external subsidy.
Our public finances are managed by Cook Islanders, for Cook Islanders, through our own budget processes.
The S&P upgrade is external validation of what this Government has long known and maintained: that we are a well-governed, fiscally disciplined state. I would encourage all Members to take note of that — and to reflect on it the next time the capability of our governance is questioned from outside this chamber.
Mr Speaker, I want to speak to the question of our development partnerships — and to speak to it with the clarity and warmth that both our people and our partners deserve.
Aotearoa New Zealand holds a place in our partnership landscape that no other country does. Ours is not merely a development relationship, it is a constitutional bond, an ancestral connection, and a shared Pacific identity that stretches across generations and across the Te Moana Nui o Kiva.
The Declaration is the latest expression of that bond, and the restoration of full budget support cooperation reflects a relationship that both governments have chosen to invest in, protect, and deepen. We are grateful for that investment, and we intend to honour it as we always have, through transparent governance, through genuine consultation, and through the practical cooperation that benefits both our peoples. New Zealand is not simply our largest partner. It is, in the fullest sense, our partner of first regard.
At the same time, the Cook Islands advances its foreign policy through a range of development relationships that contribute to our national goals in distinct and valued ways. We work with the Asian Development Bank on public sector strengthening, infrastructure and climate resilience. We engage with the United Nations system on sustainable development and our obligations as an international actor. We partner with the Pacific Community, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and a growing number of bilateral partners on programmes that directly serve Cook Islanders across our islands.
This Government engages with every development partner on the basis of shared interest, mutual respect, and alignment with our National Sustainable Development Agenda 2020+.
We bring to every partnership the same transparency and accountability that our own people expect of us, and which our upgraded S&P credit rating reflects. We welcome partners who come to us in that spirit, and we will work alongside them with energy and commitment.
This Government’s approach to development partnership is not exclusive. It is principled. We do not ask our partners to choose between us and others. We ask only that they engage with us as we engage with them: honestly, in good faith, and with genuine commitment to the outcomes that matter to our people.
On those terms, the Cook Islands is open, engaged, and ready to build.
Mr Speaker, I want to bring together the threads of what I have said today, because they form a coherent picture that this House, and the people of the Cook Islands, deserve to see clearly.
We are a nation with an upgraded sovereign credit rating, because we have governed our finances with discipline and built our economy with skill.
We have affirmed our defence and security cooperation with Aotearoa New Zealand, because we engaged a period of difficulty with good faith and emerged with clarity.
We have a practical and operational cooperation arrangement with the Royal New Zealand Navy, because we take seriously our responsibilities within our own waters and our own region.
And we maintain a broad and growing network of development partnerships, because we are a self-governing state that engages the world on our own terms.
None of these things have happened by accident. They are the result of consistent, principled, and nationally focused governance. And they are the foundation from which the Cook Islands will continue to build.
This House may not always agree on the precise choices this Government makes. That is the nature of democracy, and it is healthy.
But I ask every Member of this Parliament, across every party, to agree on this: that the Cook Islands governs itself, that it speaks for itself, and that it will always act first in the interests of its own people. On that, there should be no division.
Meitaki maata, Mr Speaker. Kia orana. I lay this Statement before the House.
