Overview

Cook Islands comprises 15 small islands, spread over 2.2 million square kilometres, between American Samoa and French Polynesia, South of Hawaii. Avrarua, on the island of Rarotonga, is the national capital. The islands are home to a population of approximately 17,000 people. There are at least seven times as many Cook Islanders living in New Zealand (over 94,000 as of 2023 census) and Australia (28,000 as of 2021 census).

Political overview

Cook Islands is self-governing in ‘free association' with New Zealand, an arrangement dating from August 1965. Under the terms of the free association, Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship and enjoy the right of free access to New Zealand and by extension Australia.

System of Government

Cook Islands is a sovereign parliamentary democracy, with King Charles III the Head of State, represented by a King's Representative, currently HE Sir Tom Marsters KBE.

Cook Islands has a unicameral parliament with 25 elected members and a parliamentary term of four years. There is also a 15-member House of Ariki (Chiefs), established in 1966, composed of six Ariki from Rarotonga and nine from the outer islands. The Ariki advise the Government on land use and customary issues. There is full adult suffrage and registration is compulsory, although voting is not.

The Head of Government is the Prime Minister, currently Mark Brown. Prime Minister Brown was re-appointed as the 12th Prime Minister of Cook Islands on 11 August 2022 (CKT) following the 2022 election.

Bilateral relations

Australia's High Commission to Cook Islands commenced operations on 17 December 2019. The first resident High Commissioner, Dr Christopher Watkins, arrived in March 2020.

Australia's relationship with Cook Islands focusses on shared membership of regional organisations, trade and investment, people-to-people links, and security cooperation. Cook Islands was a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum and served as Chair in 2012 and 2023.

People-to-people links

The latest census (2021) records that at least 28,000 people of Cook Islands descent are residents in Australia, many with Australian citizenship. A far greater number have studied in Australian universities. In 2025, nearly 46,000  Australians visited Cook Islands.

Since 2014, the New Colombo Plan (NCP) has awarded 13 scholarships and 327 mobility grants for Australian undergraduates to undertake study, language training and internships in Cook Islands. The NCP is an Australian Government initiative that aims to lift knowledge of the Indo-Pacific in Australia by building a diverse cohort of Australian undergraduates with deeper Indo-Pacific capability.

Security cooperation

Cook Islands is a partner nation to the Pacific Maritime Security Program (PMSP). The PMSP builds on the three decades of success of the original Pacific Patrol Boat Program and extends the uninterrupted commitment to maritime security in the Pacific. In June 2022, Australia replaced the Pacific Patrol Boat, Te Kukupa (Dove of Peace; delivered in 1989) with a Guardian-class Patrol Boat (GPB), Te Kukupa II. This provides the Cook Islands Police Maritime Division with the surveillance capabilities required to patrol the Cook Islands' large Exclusive Economic Zone. In addition to maritime surveillance, GPBs provide search and rescue capabilities. The PMSP also delivers a comprehensive package of capability, infrastructure, sustainment, training and coordination designed to increase national and regional maritime security for partner nations.

Economic overview

On 1 January 2020, Cook Islands graduated from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list of Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients. As a high-income status country, Cook Islands became ineligible to receive ODA. For the Cook Islands, economic diversification is a priority, including developing marine resources within its large EEZ.

Capacity building

Since 2020-21, Australia has provided $10 million in non-ODA funding to the Cook Islands. Australia’s support ($2 million annually from 2024-25) is delivered through budget support and includes an annual $100,000 small community grants program, administered by the High Commission in Rarotonga.

Through our funding, Australia is supporting activities aligned with Cook Islands’ priorities in policing, health, cyber cooperation, capacity development, essential services and environmental protection. 

More information on Cook Islands economy [PDF] and Australia’s Partnership with Cook Islands.

Find information here on Australia's efforts towards building a stronger and more united Pacific family.

Trade and investment

Australia has a modest trade and investment relationship with the Cook Islands. Our two-way goods and services trade was valued over $250 million in 2025. Australia’s key exports to and imports from the Cook Islands, were recreational and business-related travels.

Cook Islands ratified the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus (PACER Plus) on 14 October 2020, becoming the eighth signatory after Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Niue. Cook Islands’ ratification was the final step required to trigger the entry into force of the PACER Plus, which occurred on 13 December 2020.

PACER Plus is supporting Parties to become more active partners in, and beneficiaries of, regional and global trade. It includes a regional framework for trade related assistance, through which Australia and New Zealand provide support to improve long term trade practices in the Pacific.

High-level visits and meetings

• May 2026: Minister for Home Affairs the Hon Tony Burke and Prime Minister of the Cook Islands the Hon Mark Brown visited Fiji to attend the inaugural Pacific Police Ministers Meeting during the Pacific Transnational Crime Summit, and celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Pinkenba Security Hub in Brisbane (December 2025).
• December 2025: Cook Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon Tingika Elikana met bilaterally with Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs the Hon Senator Nita Green at the 6th Korea Pacific Islands Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Seoul, Korea.
• October 2025: Prime Minister Brown met bilaterally with the Minister for Defence Industry and Pacific Island Affairs the Hon Pat Conroy and thereafter, attended the Pacific Climate Change Ministerial Talanoa in Sydney, hosted by Minister for Climate Change and Energy the Hon Chris Bowen.
• September 2025: Prime Minister the Hon Anthony Albanese visited the Solomon Islands and interacted with Prime Minister Brown at the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting.
• August 2025: Deputy Prime Minister Albert Nicholas attended the Pacific Infrastructure Conference in Brisbane; also attended by Minister Conroy.
• May 2025; Prime Minister Brown visited Sydney and met with the Minister Conroy.
• November 2024: Foreign Minister Elikana visited Australia for the 2024 PACER Plus meeting. He signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia's then-Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services the Hon Stephen Jones, on Shared Retirement Savings Portability.
• November 2023: Prime Minister Albanese and then-Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy visited Cook Islands to attend the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting.
• June 2023: Their Excellencies General the Hon David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) and Mrs Linda Hurley travelled to Cook Islands and met with His Excellency Sir Tom Marsters KBE, King's Representative to the Cook Islands.
• Oct 2022: Minister for Foreign Affairs the Hon Senator Penny Wong visited Cook Islands to further strengthen Australia's deep ties via the signing of the 'Oa Tumanava partnership. She met with Prime Minister Brown.
• June 2022: Prime Minister Brown visited Australia to receive Cook Islands new Guardian-class Patrol Boat. He met with Prime Minister Albanese, Foreign Minister Wong, Minister Conroy, Minister for Veterans' Affairs Matt Keogh and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen.