Cook Islands to be the second Pacific Island nation to establish its maritime boundaries
29th August 2012 – A historic signing of eight maritime treaties during the 43rd Leaders Forum has placed Cook Islands as the second country in the Pacific to delineate its entire maritime borders.
The seven bilateral treaties were signed by the leaders of the Cook Islands, Niue, Kiribati, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Nauru and the Marshall Islands. In addition, the leaders of Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Nauru agreed to an additional tri-lateral treaty concerning the determination of a point where the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of all three countries intersect.
Addressing leaders at the signing the Cook Islands Prime Minister the Hon. Henry Puna called the signing of these treaties as a “definitive step towards better defining the management frameworks for our ocean areas and sends and important message to the world about regional collaboration, unity and the importance of ocean resources to the Pacific Islands”.
“Never before has so many treaties been signed” says the Director of the Applied Geoscience & Technology Division (SOPAC) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Dr Russell Howarth.
“This occasion is a milestone for the region in terms of maritime boundaries”. He says.
It is has been a tremendous effort of regional coordination and collaboration with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), the Government of Australia’s Attorney General’s Office and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He added.
According the MMR Secretary, Ben Ponia this has special significance for the Cook Islands because now the entire EEZ of the Cook Islands will be clearly delineated. One of the immediate benefits will be controlling illegal fishing. This baseline provides a basis for the extension of our continental shelf.
“I believe that we will be the second nation in the Pacific alongside Nauru to have established our entire outer EEZ limits. We are now a large ocean island state of 1.977 million square kilometres of EEZ”. He says. -MMR Release

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