Foreign relations of the Cook Islands

Template:Short description The Cook Islands maintains diplomatic relations with various countries and is a member of multilateral organisations. While the country is in free association with New Zealand, which can act on the Cook Islands' "delegated authority [...] to assist the Cooks Islands" in foreign affairs, the Cook Islands nevertheless enters into treaty obligations and otherwise "interacts with the international community as a sovereign and independent state."

History

In the 1980s the Cook Islands became a member of several United Nations specialized agencies: the World Health Organization in 1984, the Food and Agriculture Organization and UNESCO in 1985, and the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1986. The Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs records that in 1988 New Zealand declared "that its future participation in international agreements would no longer extend to the Cook Islands..." In 1991 the Cook Islands became a full member of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Preparatory Committee and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC), which the Repertory of Practice describes as "further evidence that the international community had accepted the Cook Islands as a “State” under international law." The United Nations Secretariat therefore "recognized the full treaty-making capacity of the Cook Islands" in 1992 and the Secretary-General, in his capacity as the depository of multilateral treaties, decided that the Cook Islands could participate in treaties that were open to "all states".

Diplomatic relations

List of countries with which the Cook Islands maintains diplomatic relations:

File:Diplomatic relations of Cook Islands.svg
#	Country	Date
1	Norway	Template:Dts
2	Malaysia	Template:Dts
3	New Zealand	Template:Dts
4	Australia	Template:Dts
5	Nauru	Template:Dts
6	Portugal	Template:Dts
7	Papua New Guinea	Template:Dts
8	South Africa	Template:Dts
9	Iran	Template:Dts
10	China	Template:Dts
11	Spain	Template:Dts
12	India	Template:Dts
13	Fiji	Template:Dts
—	Holy See	Template:Dts
14	France	Template:Dts
15	Germany	Template:Dts
16	Cuba	Template:Dts
17	Timor-Leste	Template:Dts
18	Jamaica	Template:Dts
19	Italy	Template:Dts
20	Belgium	Template:Dts
21	Thailand	Template:Dts
22	Israel	Template:Dts
23	Czech Republic	Template:Dts
24	Turkey	Template:Dts
25	Switzerland	Template:Dts
26	Japan	Template:Dts
27	Netherlands	Template:Dts
28	Philippines	Template:Dts
29	Singapore	Template:Dts
30	South Korea	Template:Dts
31	Samoa	Template:Dts
32	Tuvalu	Template:Dts
33	Solomon Islands	Template:Dts
34	Kiribati
35	Marshall Islands
36	Palau
—	Niue	Template:Dts
37	Vanuatu	Template:Dts
38	Federated States of Micronesia
39	Tonga	Template:Dts
—	Kosovo
40	Brazil	Template:Dts
41	Chile	Template:Dts
42	Peru	Template:Dts
43	Malta	Template:Dts
44	Iceland	Template:Dts
45	Antigua and Barbuda	Template:Dts
46	United Arab Emirates	Template:Dts
47	Estonia	Template:Dts
48	Hungary	Template:Dts
49	Greece	Template:Dts
50	Indonesia	Template:Dts
51	Kuwait	Template:Dts
52	Vietnam	Template:Dts
53	Ireland	Template:Dts
54	Saudi Arabia	Template:Dts
55	Canada	Template:Dts
56	United States	Template:Dts
57	Ghana	Template:Dts
58	Mexico	Template:DTS
59	Panama	Template:DTS
60	Bangladesh	Template:Dts
61	Ecuador	Template:Dts
62	Seychelles	Template:Dts
63	Poland	Template:Dts
64	Azerbaijan	Template:Dts

Bilateral relations

Country	Formal Relations Began	Notes
China	1997	The Chinese Embassy to New Zealand in Wellington is also accredited to the Cook Islands.
India	1998	The Indian High Commission in Suva, Fiji is accredited to the Cook Islands.
New Zealand	1993	The Cook Islands maintains a High Commission in Wellington and a Consul-General in Auckland. New Zealand maintains a High Commission in Rarotonga.
United States	2023	The Cook Islands signed the Cook Islands–United States Maritime Boundary Treaty in 1980. The US established diplomatic relations with the Cook Islands in 25 September 2023.

Consular relations

The following countries have established consular relations with the Cook Islands only.

• Monaco 2007 or before

International organisation participation

File:43rd Pacific43rd Pacific Islands Forum, Cook Islands. Islands Forum, Cook Islands. (10656271245).jpg

43rd Pacific Islands Forum, in the Cook Islands, 28.8.-1.9.2012

• ACP, AOSIS, AsDB, ESCAP (associate), FAO, ICAO, IMO, ICC, ICFTU, IFAD, ILO IOC, OPCW, Pacific Islands Forum, Red Cross/Red Crescent, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, WHO, WMO
• Commonwealth of Nations – the Cook Islands are part of the Commonwealth, but is not a member state, being a dependency of New Zealand, whose Commonwealth membership covers the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau, as well as New Zealand itself.
• In November 2011, the Cook Islands were one of the eight founding members of Polynesian Leaders Group, a regional grouping intended to cooperate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment.
• The Cook Islands participate in the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations regulatory body for the shipping trade.

Participation in international treaties and conventions

• Party to the following treaties and conventions: Biodiversity Convention, Cotonou Agreement, Geneva Conventions, POPs Project, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, UNCLOS, UNFCCC and its Kyoto protocol, Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, Biological Weapons Convention, Convention of the International Mobile Satellite Organization

See also

• List of diplomatic missions of the Cook Islands
• List of diplomatic missions in the Cook Islands
• Foreign relations of Niue
• Foreign relations of New Zealand
• Politics of the Cook Islands

External links

• Cook Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration
• Cook Islands analysis
• The Cook Islands’ unique constitutional and international status
• Cook Islands Representatives Overseas 2006
• Diplomatic Relations List 2011