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Speaker 1: So how big a deal is the Cook signing with China.

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Speaker 1: It's expected to begin died the dial this weekend as

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Speaker 1: part of the first to have a state visit to Beijing.

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Speaker 1: And part of the problem seems to be New Zealand's

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Speaker 1: been out of the loop on all of this. Winston

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Speaker 1: Peters shortly but the University of Oaklands international relations expert

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Speaker 1: Stephen Hidley, First, Stephen, morning to you, Urana. Is this

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Speaker 1: a big win for China?

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Speaker 2: It is? Indeed. Yeah. If you're an Australian analyst of geopolitics,

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Speaker 2: you're going to be very alarmed about this. If you're

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Speaker 2: an island leader, you're going to say, look, why not

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Speaker 2: Cook Islands needs the economic resources, it's got brain drain,

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Speaker 2: it's got an ocean. It should as people have higher expectations.

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Speaker 2: So there are really several narratives here. And then there's

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Speaker 2: Winston Peters narrative. You'll remember the Wine Bucks scandal. You're

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Speaker 2: old enough to remember that. Winston Peters put the hard

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Speaker 2: word on Cook Islands for dodgy banking practices and almost

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Speaker 2: money laundering. So Winston Peter has a long history of

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Speaker 2: irritation with Cook Islands.

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Speaker 1: Would astrilily be as upsit with this deal, as we

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Speaker 1: are upsit with this deal.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I think so. And we hope this doesn't

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Speaker 2: attract the attention of Donald Trump. Now, Donald Trump is

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Speaker 2: taking a hard line to China, and he's going to

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Speaker 2: want all of his partners and allies to do the same.

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Speaker 2: And this may reflect badly on New Zealand to allow

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Speaker 2: it's one of its realm countries to slide over into

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Speaker 2: the Chinese orbit.

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Speaker 1: How I mean you go back to the twenty seventeen

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Speaker 1: one billion dollars foreign aid and Peters argued, we needed

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Speaker 1: to be better friends, needed to be more present in

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Speaker 1: the Pacific. So good on them for doing that. And

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Speaker 1: yet the chickbook was always going to win. How do

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Speaker 1: you compete with the Chinese chickbook?

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Speaker 2: Well, you can't. Look, it's impossible. You can do the

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Speaker 2: best you can. You could work with your allies. You're

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Speaker 2: bringing the Japanese and the Australians and the United States

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Speaker 2: if possible, into the mix, and hang in there aspecial

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Speaker 2: you can, and hope the Chinese self destruct. That is,

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Speaker 2: their economy is not all that strong, and maybe they'll

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Speaker 2: make mistakes along the way, as they have done with

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Speaker 2: their road and built initiative, so it's the game isn't lost,

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Speaker 2: but certainly the current play. The Chinese have moved forward

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Speaker 2: in not only Holman Islands but also Curebus, also in

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Speaker 2: Palau and now in Cook Islands.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Steven appreciate the insights. Steve Hudley, University of Oakland,

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Speaker 1: International relations expert. I was going to suggest, I mean

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Speaker 1: to Boli, heure of us is one thing, but the

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Speaker 1: Cooks is the big prize. Basically, isn't it. For more

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