New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau sat down together in Auckland on Friday for what Christopher Luxon called the first four-way meeting of Realm leaders. He hosted Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, Niue’s Dalton Tagelagi and Ulu-o-Tokelau Petelo Alapati Tavite at Government House, then they head this weekend to Palau for the 55th Pacific Islands Forum. Tagelagi had asked for the roundtable in February, calling a frank talk about the constitutional relationships overdue. Luxon thanked him for the idea.
The Realm is New Zealand plus two self-governing states in free association, Cook Islands and Niue, plus Tokelau, a non-self-governing territory; their people are New Zealand citizens. Luxon put the diaspora at 140,000 in New Zealand and said that, “in a volatile and uncertain world,” the question was what more Wellington could do. He also said the row with the Cook Islands — a late-2024 security deal with China that New Zealand disliked, a breakdown in trust, an aid cut, the money restored earlier this year — was “sorted.” Brown said a Cook Islands passport was “no longer part of our discussions.”
The United States wants deep-sea minerals in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Brown said seabed decisions would be made “by the Cook Islands for the interest of Cook Islanders only.” Tokelau was thrown out of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement vessel-day scheme in February; the revenue loss is large, and RNZ has previously reported that New Zealand may have had a hand in the expulsion. Luxon denied that and said they were putting a “full court press” on PNA members in Palau to get Tokelau back in. After the meeting, only Tokelau’s leader did not speak to reporters. The family reunion is now an annual plan. Palau is the first test of whether it travels.
Sources: RNZ; Pacific Media Network.
