The Prime Minister, Hon. Mark Brown, departs today (Wednesday 26 August) for Koror, Palau, to lead the Cook Islands delegation to the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM55), hosted by the Republic of Palau from 30 August to 4 September 2026, under the host theme “B.E.L.A.U. Building Economies: Life. Action. Unity”.
En route to the Forum, the Prime Minister will also attend the inaugural Realm Leaders’ Meeting at Government House in Auckland on Friday 28 August, the first occasion on which the leaders of the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Niue and Tokelau have sat down together in this format.
“This is a rare and valuable gathering,” Prime Minister Brown said. “The Cook Islands, New Zealand, Niue and Tokelau each carry a distinct constitutional history, and the evolution of statehood for each of our countries has followed its own path. What we share is a partnership freely entered into and freely maintained, based on our shared cultural and political histories with common respect for one another’s right to determine our own course.”
The Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting is the Prime Minister’s first major regional engagement since the General Election of 12 August, and he will be supported by the Secretary and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration.
“The Cook Islands travels to Palau with a settled mandate and a clear position,” Prime Minister Brown said. “Our people have made their choice, and what the region will see from us is what it has always seen: a country that knows its own mind, keeps its commitments, and works with every partner willing to work with us on our terms.”
Leaders will consider a substantial agenda carried forward from the Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Suva on 7 August. It includes the third annual report on implementation of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, a Regional Peace and Security Action Plan 2026–2030, the Vakamanu Regional Pacific Fisheries Strategy 2026–2035, the 2026 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Ocean Statement, progress under the COP31 Pacific Partnership, and the operationalisation of the Leaders Policy on Partnerships.
The Prime Minister said the Cook Islands would press for delivery rather than further architecture.
“The region is not short of strategies. It is short of implementation. Our test for every proposal in Palau is a practical one: does it put capability in the water, energy into the grid, or resilience into the hands of the communities that need it? Where it does, we will support it. Where it adds another meeting and no capability, we will say so plainly.”
The Prime Minister will also carry forward the Cook Islands’ consistent position that the Pacific is an Ocean of Peace, and that the region’s security is defined by Pacific priorities under the 2050 Strategy rather than by competition between others.
“The Treaty of Rarotonga was signed in our capital more than forty years ago. It reflects a determination that this region remains peaceful, stable and free of nuclear weapons. That determination has not weakened, and we expect all states, without exception, to act consistently with it.”
The Cook Islands contributions for PIFLM55 will focus on elevating SIS priorities, encouraging a development partner agenda that is shaped by and for Pacific peoples, advocating for digital transformation that meets our systems where they are, with a view towards where they need to go, and supporting regional action on sustainable ocean stewardship and regional stability.
“Everything comes back to our people: reliable services, good jobs, and communities that are resilient and enduring. I head into Forum Leaders this year with a clear mandate and renewed energy to advocate for development that is by us, for us. That’s what I’ll be working for in Palau,” the Prime Minister said.
