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Deputy Prime Minister to Commonwealth Small Island States Meeting
Wednesday 9 November 2011

The Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, the Hon Tom Marsters, represented the Cook Islands at the Commonwealth and Developing Small States Foreign Ministers (CDSS) Meeting held in Perth, Western Australia, on 25 October.  While in Perth, the DPM also met with senior members of the Western Australian Parliament as well as a senior representative of the Government of Cuba.
The objectives of the meeting were to identify: the challenges that developing small States are facing in the context of climate change and sustainable development; their priorities for addressing those challenges; and ways in which the Commonwealth and other States can advance those priorities in international fora.
More than 60 Commonwealth and other small developing States attended the two-day Meeting. During the Meeting, the DPM, who was one of less than half of those present to make interventions due to the limited time, made a presentation in which he reaffirmed Cook Islands adherence to Commonwealth principles (e.g., as set out in the 1971 Singapore Declaration) and highlighted Government’s policies on sustainable development, especially in relation to renewable energy and development of the ‘blue economy’, i.e., sustainable exploitation of the living and non-living marine resources of the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone.  He urged support from the international community to enable the Cook Islands to achieve its goals.

At the end of the CDSS Meeting, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, summarised the main conclusions of the deliberations especially as they focused on climate change:  there was an urgent need to take action now, to negotiate a binding legal framework with binding commitments relating to climate change, and to have improved financial mechanisms to ensure small developing States could have easy access to finances needed for adaptation and mitigation measures.   Those conclusions were later brought to the attention of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

“This meeting presented an ideal opportunity for the Cook Islands to highlight its own position on key aspects of sustainable development, especially climate change, that we would not otherwise have had,” explained the DPM, “and we are happy that the overall conclusions of the meeting took into account and reflected our priorities and those of the other small, developing countries taking part.”
While in Perth, the DPM met with the Hon Barry House, President of the Legislative Council of Western Australia, and other Members and officials of the Western Australian Parliament, with which the Cook Islands Parliament has a special twining relationship.  As a result of his discussions, the Western Australian Parliament has offered to provide technical assistance to the Cook Islands Parliament over the coming months.

The DPM met as well with Cuba’s Deputy Minister, Ms Ana Fraga, who was also attending the CDSS Meeting.  They discussed possible assistance to the Cook Islands in the areas of sports and medical services.  Cuba is strong in sports such as boxing and athletics and Cuba could send boxing trainers to the Cook Islands or take our boxers for training in Cuba.  Cuba had also offered medical scholarships for Cook Islanders to study in Cuba and was considering the possibility of Cuban medical practitioners working in the Cook Islands, as they were doing in many countries around the world.  The DPM will discuss the above matters with Minister Glassie and Cabinet.