- The Cook Islands' support for the multiple global benefits of the CTBT

by Henry Puna, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands

The Cook Islands’ support for international efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons and halt nuclear weapons
testing can best be understood at three different but inter-related levels.

From the initial settlement centuries ago of the fifteen islands in the centre of the South Pacific that history has subsequently come to know as ‘the Cook Islands’, there has been an intimate cultural and economic relationship between Cook Islanders and the surrounding ocean. From birth, generations of Cook Islanders have had a deep appreciation that the ‘Moana Nui o Kiva’, the great Pacific Ocean, is not only a
maritime highway, connecting one island to another, but also the marine farm from which Cook Islanders harvest a major part of their daily sustenance. Any activities threatening the degradation of the marine
environment would be unacceptable.

Tuesday 20th March 2012

His Excellency, Mr. Jesús Miguel Sanz Escorihuela, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, is visiting the Cook Islands from Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 March 2012. The purpose of Ambassador Sanz Escorihuela’s visit is to present his credentials to the Cook Islands Government and to hold discussions with Government on bilateral and international relations.

Diplomatic Relations between the Cook Islands and the Kingdom of Spain were established in 1998. This year will mark the 14th anniversary of the establishment of relations.

The Kingdom of Spain is a member of the European Union and contributes to the European Development Fund (EDF), the EU’s main development cooperation instrument.  As a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, the Cook Islands has benefited from significant EU assistance since 2000 when it first became a member of the Group.  Assistance to date has been in the areas of health and education, water and sanitation and, most recently construction of the Pukapuka Cyclone Shelter.

Discussions between the two Governments on possible fisheries cooperation are ongoing.

Ambassador Sanz Escorihuela is based in Wellington and is accompanied to the Cook Islands by his family. 

7th Conference of the Pacific Community
Statement by Cook Islands Prime Minister the Hon. Henry Puna
Climate Change and Food Security – challenges and solutions in the Pacific Island countries and territories

Salutations
In 2010, the Pacific Small Island Developing States five-year review of the Mauritius Strategy for Further Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of SIDS (MSI+5) found that since the Rio Meeting in 1992 our vulnerability has increased whilst our capacity to cope has not.  This has been due in no small part to the additional pressures of climate change, climate variability and sea-level rise which have been compounded by the international fuel, food and financial crises.  These new pressures have exacerbated those that were identified in 1992.
We share much in common. However, we each have our own particular challenges and opportunities, many of which stem from our largest shared resource, the Pacific Ocean.  We have, are, and will continue forever to exist in a Blue World, the vast Pacific Ocean, which comprises over 95% of our sovereign territory and over which we have stewardship in the interest of the Global Commons.
Socially, the context of widespread small communities on generally small if not tiny islands provided, and still largely does provide, the basis for our traditional and cultural social fabric. The ocean feeds us (and a large part of the global community), it endangers us (cyclones, storm surges, and tsunamis), and underpins the many challenges we face (isolation from markets, high cost of imports and exports, cost of internal transport) and opportunities they have for economic development (tourism, fisheries, seabed minerals).

Monday 12th March 2012

Her Excellency Maria del Carmen Herrera Caserio, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba will be visiting the Cook Islands from 13 to 17 March 2012. The purpose of Ambassador Herrera Caserio’s visit is to present her credentials to the Cook Islands Government.

Diplomatic Relations between the Cook Islands and the Republic of Cuba were established in September 2002. This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of relations.

During the Ambassadors visit she will meet with the Government to discuss matters of mutual interest in the fields of health, sports and education.

Ambassador Herrera Caserio is based in Wellington and is also accredited to Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Monday 27th February 2012

His Excellency Mr Li Qiangmin, Special Envoy for the China-Pacific Islands Forum Dialogue visited the Cook Islands from 23 to 25 February 2012. The purpose of Ambassador Li’s visit was to familiarize himself with the Cook Islands, discuss the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum arrangements, possible assistance from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and various bilateral and international matters.

Accompanying the Special Envoy to the Cook Islands was His Excellency Mr Xu Jianguo, Ambassador of the PRC to the Cook Islands, and senior officials from the Chinese Embassy in Wellington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.

While in Rarotonga, the Chinese Ambassador signed with the Hon Tom Marsters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement providing for a grant of Renmimbi 20 million (approximately NZ$4 million) for projects yet to be identified.

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND COOK ISLANDS HIGH COMMISSION

The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) expect exports of Cook Islands pawpaws to New Zealand to commence within the first half of 2012. 

An extensive pawpaw planting program supported by Cook Islands Government has been underway under the direction of the MoA for a number of months which is expected will culminate in the export of pawpaws to New Zealand as early as February or March 2012.  The outstanding matter to facilitate pawpaw exports include completion of renovations to the facility housing the Heat Treatment Force Air (HTFA) at Rarotonga Airport and a commercial audit of the HTFA by New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF).