“New Zealand behaves less like a partner and more like a strategic guardian from whom the Cook Islands must seek permission. This power imbalance speaks to a deeper truth: Pacific nations are often treated as never fully ‘sovereign’.” — Sione Tekiteki.
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“It is sound policy, not insurrection, for small nations to diversify economic partnerships and secure development opportunities for their people.” — Eugene Doyle on why New Zealand maybe shouldn’t invade the Cook Islands for signing a strategic partnership with China.
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“The only ‘development’ that happened in our islands was sickness. The health consequences and cost of France’s nuclear bombs continue to be borne by our people, yet France still refuses to take responsibility for them.” — Tahitian anti-nuclear activist and politician Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross.
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“In wanting to play with the big boys, the state bureaucracy, coupled with a grasping political class, appears likely to drag New Zealand into a US-led Asia-Pacific conflict that serves none of our interests.” — Glen Johnson.
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“Despite the rhetoric around our so-called traditional partners and his desire to align more closely with the US, I believe Winston Peters also sees the need for New Zealand to engage meaningfully with Pacific nations.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“Pacific nations can see the step-change in the way New Zealand is conducting its foreign policy. The shift away from an independent, nuclear-free and Pacific-led foreign policy towards the adoption of a US-led, Indo-Pacific strategy is clear. Our actions in Yemen confirm it.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“Our nuclear-free status is tied in intimate ways to our political independence, and ultimately to our survival as peoples of the Pacific.” — Dr Marco de Jong and Talei Mangioni.
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“No amount of investment in military platforms, and alignment with the AUKUS nations and their beliefs, will deny our demography and geography: we are part of the Pacific.” — Dr Marco de Jong.
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“For New Zealand, and other Pacific nations, reducing our options to choosing sides between two imperial nations devalues our sovereignty and place as peoples of the Pacific.” — Dr Marco de Jong on AUKUS.
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