Mark Brown

Mr Landau also visited Solomon Islands and Kiribati after the Forum Leaders Summit.

The Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says cost of living and housing are among the major items on the agenda for his new government's first 100 days.

Mr Brown's Cook Islands party won a large majority in last month's general election.

A Cook Islands news poll before the election found 50% of respondents ranked the cost of living and inflation, including fuel prices, water and power bills, housing, transportation and consumer goods, as their primary concern.

on pretty good authority here that this may be the largest single piece of physical infrastructure that the New Zealand Development Programme has overseen, certainly in recent memory.

Quite importantly, Mark Brown, Prime Minister Mark Brown from the Cook Islands was, you know, very much front and centre at that announcement and It hasn't been talked about very publicly, I suppose, so it might have taken a few people a bit by surprise when it was announced here, given that the Cooks has been in an election campaign for the last few weeks.

But it's certainly quite evident that there's been some very, very close coordination with Prime Minister Brown and the Cook Islands government in the lead up to that announcement.

Right.

Susanna Suisuiki has more.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown hailed the port as a lifeline for the outer island, allowing for more inter-island travel and increased domestic shipping.

Penrhyn MP Vaine Wichman also welcomed the announcement and told Pacific Waves it's been a long time coming.

It's, uh, quite a long time overdue and important, meaning for years, um, over 20 years that I've known them being involved with the people, uh, a lot of this kind of activity is not really, um, reflected very easily in the, the decisions that the country makes in terms of, um, significant projects being, um, put for the small island like Penrhyn.

This week at the Pacific Forum meeting in Palau, the United States and New Zealand announced they will co-fund to upgrade a port on the island of Penrhyn in the northern Cook Islands investing around 100 million US dollars in the project.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown hailed the ports as a lifeline for the outer island allowing for more inter island travel and increased domestic shipping.

Penrhyn MP Vaine Wichman also welcomed the announcement and told Pacific Waves it's been a long time coming.

It's, uh, quite a long time overdue and important meaning for years, um, over 20 years that I've known them being involved with people, uh, a lot of this kind of activity is not really, um, reflected very easily in the decision set the country makes In terms of, um, significant projects being, um, proved for the small island like Penrhyn.

Turning to politics, voters in the Cook Islands went to the polls on August 12th to choose all 24 members of parliament.

Cost of living, water tariffs, and seabed mining were prominent domestic issues, alongside debate over Prime Minister Mark Brown's management of relations with New Zealand and China.

The preliminary count gave Brown's Cook Islands party 12 seats, enough to put it in the strongest position, but initially one short of a majority on its own.

Cook Islands United won four seats, while a large group of independents again held the balance.

U.S. Deputy State Secretary Christopher Landau says the project builds on the critical minerals framework signed with the Cooks in February.

The Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown called the port a lifeline for the country, adding capacity for domestic shipping and inter-island travel.

Vanuatu is trying to bring a decades-old dispute with France over two uninhabited islands before the International Court of Justice.

The World Court says it won't immediately accept the case because France has not yet agreed to its jurisdiction.

But the announcement today spells out a Cook Islands government-owned port facility that would be multifaceted and multipurpose.

Prime Minister Mark Brown says it's a lifeline.

This is one of the largest single infrastructure and transport connectivity projects that our country will enter into.

And I thank the United States and New Zealand for investment of this scale and for the confidence in the Cook Islands that it represents.