E KAPU VAI KURA KITE KAU ARIKI

E NOO KITE MARAE KI O-RONGO

KIA IRIIRI I TAKU KARAKIA TAPU

EI ATUITUI I TAKU RAURAU TANGATA KITE PIRI-ANGA OA

KA TUPU KI ITI NUI
KA TUPU KI ITI RAI
KA TUPU KI ITI-NGAEIEI

AIEKOKO......

Aloha & kia orana tatou katoatoa. Thank you – meitaki ma’ata and mahalo nui – to everyone gathered here today for this momentous occasion.

To Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Mr Tommy Waters, Chair of the Honolulu City Council, thank you for supporting this agreement and with it the closer ties and connections our new relationship will bring.

Thanks also to the many others who helped bring this to fruition – Esther Kia’aina, Sam Moku, Ka’ili Trask and Angela Miguel are just some of the names I have to hand right now but I know there are more out there, and I would like you to know that your efforts and assistance are greatly appreciated.

This is a historic occasion for the Cook Islands, and I am glad that we were able to schedule this signing ceremony to coincide with this 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture Festival.

Pacific leaders have long understood how integral culture was to the health and well-being of Pacific people.

And so it was, fifty-two years ago, in 1972, the Fiji Arts Council and the Pacific Community (SPC) hosted the very first South Pacific Arts Festival in Suva. Important to note that this was only a year after the very first Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting convened in 1971 and several of our Pacific nations hadn’t yet secured independence.

I recall vividly when we hosted the 6th Festival of Arts in 1992 – thirty-two years ago.

That hosting brought about the revival of our vaka – our ocean voyaging traditions as well as our tatatau – tattooing, and our dance and songs – cultural revivals which we’ve sustained to present day.

Hawai’i’s theme for this FestPac is “Ho’oulu Lahui – Regenerating Oceania”. How fitting this theme is for our signing today.
The ties that bind the Maori of Te Kuki Airani – and the Maoli of Hawaii – go back generations.

Those ties manifest in the centuries old, shared ocean voyaging and exploration feats of our Polynesian people that thrive still to present day in our warriors that have journeyed here aboard Vaka Marumaru Atua.

They manifest in the youthful vibrancy and age-old songs and dance of our people as have been shared this week including by our rejuvenated Cook Islands National Arts Theatre (CINAT).

They live among us in the tatatau and kakau – traditional tattooing – that adorn our people, telling stories of the past and hopes for our future.

Our signing today adds yet another tie, yet another frond, to be woven into the pandanus mat that has provided community for our people of the past, and for generations to come.

It was my privilege as Forum Chair to co-Chair with the 46th President of the United States of America Joseph Biden the 2nd United States – Pacific Islands Forum Summit hosted by President Biden at the White House in September last year.

At that Summit, among the many areas in which President Biden and our eighteen Pacific leaders committed to co-operate was cementing sister city partnerships.

I’m therefore delighted we are doing that today and confident this signing will serve to further enrich and deepen the areas of cooperation between our peoples.

It is a pleasure to also have among us today the Deputy Secretary of State, Dr Kurt Campbell who has been instrumental in the Biden administration’s re-engagement with the Pacific.

Dr. Campbell - I thank you for your appreciation of the value proposition of Oceania - of the Blue Pacific Continent –and look forward to working closely with you to bringing our shared aspirations as detailed in the U.S. – PIF Leaders Statement on Reaffirming the U.S – Pacific Partnership.

It is my hope all members of my delegation will be able to visit the Pearl Harbor National Memorial right here in Honolulu. The Memorial is a powerful reminder why we must collectively sustain global commitment to the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime.

We in the Cook Islands are proud of our nuclear free commitment, bringing to fruition in the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty in 1985 during our hosting of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting.

We welcome the participation of our people in various security programs offered by the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies here in Honolulu and look forward to more in the months ahead.

We’re proud of our responsible stewardship of our Pacific Ocean – evident in the healthy tuna stocks that continue to provide sustenance for our people and support viable economic returns.

Over decades, Honolulu has been a frequent host of various Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission – or more commonly referred to as the Tuna Commission –negotiations as our governments have sought to collectively and sustainably manage highly migratory fish stocks.

The decades long US Tuna Fisheries Treaty, renewed in 2022, support our Pacific nations sustainably manage fishery resources and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the United States and Tuna Commission partners, governments, industry and civil society, to ensure our ocean food basket continues to provide for generations to come.

This week marks 53 weeks of direct Honolulu-Rarotonga flights, operated by Hawaiian Airlines, which connects the Cook Islands with 15 U.S. gateways.

We’re continuing to work hard to build back North American business, which remains in our top 3 main source markets after New Zealand and Australia.

I hope our substantial presence here at FestPac, our signing of this sister city partnership today and performances at the Polynesian Cultural Centre will support improved performance and growth in inbound visitors from Honolulu and the 15 U.S. gateways that connect to Honolulu.

Lastly - the strength of our relationship over the years has been in the people to people ties that have been cultivated over decades.

We’ve a proud alumnus of Kamehameha Schools and are keen for the re-establishment of the program with our national college Tereora.

We’ve a growing number of graduates from Brigham Young University, the University of Hawaii and the East West Centre – institutes whose programs are valued by our people because of their Pacific context and focus on Pacific solutions to Pacific challenges.

I pay tribute to the lifetime contributions of the late Bob Worthington, who was Consul General for the Cook Islands for over a decade – his wife Jean and their family.

I recognise descendants of the Numanga and Williams family, and various other Cook Islands families that have made Honolulu and Hawaii your home away from home.

We thank you for flying our Cook Islands flag so proudly here in Hawaii and look forward to working closely with you, together with the Honolulu City Council, US State Department officials, business, cultural and academia communities of Honolulu, to ensure we bring to fruition the opportunities that present today, and those on the horizon.

Mahalo nui loa, kia orana tatou katoatoa, e kia manuia.
ENDS