Talks with Chinese researchers highlighted “collaborative opportunities” in areas including seabed minerals, the Cook Islands’ body said in a statement.
The delegation also spoke about potentially working together on marine and deep-sea exploration technology, it said.
“These conversations have opened the door to new areas of collaboration,” said Brown, who is also the Minister of Seabed Minerals.
Brown’s China visit – during which he was expected to sign a “joint action plan” for a comprehensive strategic partnership with Beijing – has raised hackles in New Zealand.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ spokesperson complained this week of a lack of consultation over the trip, describing it as “a matter of significant concern”.
Under the two countries’ free association, Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, which provides budgetary assistance and help in foreign affairs and defence.
China is vying for diplomatic, economic and military influence in the strategically important Pacific, challenging the historic regional sway of the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
But New Zealand itself is rethinking its position on deep-sea mining.
Resources Minister Shane Jones told AFP this week that his Government was considering withdrawing the country’s support for an international ban on the practice.
“We can’t deny ourselves the option where critical minerals have an increasingly critical role to play,” he said.
Conservation groups and scientists fear deep-sea mining could devastate poorly understood marine systems that play a crucial role in regulating the climate.
– AFP
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