The State Department says the U.S. will collaborate with the Cook Islands on deep-sea mineral mining, at the same time the Trump Administration faces pushback on the issue in American Samoa. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
Opposition to deep-sea mineral mining may be widespread in American Samoa, but not in the Cook Islands, where the U.S. and China are both vying for influence.
The State Department announced on the Cook Islands’ 60th Anniversary as a self-governing state this month its commitment to “scientific research” and the “responsible development of seabed mineral resources.”
The U.S. entered talks with the Cook Islands to develop seabed mineral resources just months after the South Pacific nation signed strategic pacts with China, including agreements for exploration of undersea deposits.
The U.S. arrangement will include joint efforts to map the island nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The State Department calls it “one of the most promising regions for deep-sea mineral deposits.”
President Trump issued an executive order in April expediting American licensing of seabed mining to unleash what the administration called a “gold rush” to “counter China’s growing influence.”
Separately, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met with Pacific Island Ambassadors and announced that the U.S. is releasing $60 million to the Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency.
This is part of a 10-year Economic Assistance Agreement connected to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which allows U.S.-flagged vessels to fish in the EEZs of 16 Pacific Island nations.
The U.S. House passed in May, for the second time, Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata’s South Pacific Tuna Treaty bill.
The measure that stalled in the Senate last year as part of larger Coast Guard legislation, codifies 2016 negotiated improvements to the 1988 treaty—including greater flexibility to negotiate fishing access levels.
