Cook Islands Prime Minister says a new partnership with the United States is compatible with its relations with China and will enhance diplomacy in the region
Cook Islands is one of 14 Pacific countries that have endorsed the U.S’s new Pacific partnership aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the region.
But Prime Minister Mark Brown said the new partnership doesn’t come at the expense of Cook Islands’ relations with China.
“I understand the concerns from a regional perspective or a geopolitics perspective that the larger countries may have with China’s presence in the Pacific,” he said.
Prime Minister Brown said the agreement worked in the favour of Cooks Islands and Pacific nations.
“We work compatibly with both China. And now we look forward to the same engagement with the U.S,” he said.
SOURCE: ABC PACIFIC/PACNEWS
