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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — China and the South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands signed a comprehensive strategic partnership deal on Friday,raising alarm that Beijing is extending its reach into the region in ways that could have security and environmental consequences.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown signed the agreement on Friday during a visit to China, the first by the country’s leader in a decade, as the small Pacific nation seeks to diversify its economy away from tourism, which took a hit during the coronavirus pandemic.

But secrecy over the contents of the agreement has concerned New Zealand, which must be consulted on security and defense issues as a former colonial power.

New Zealand’s minister of foreign affairs, Winston Peters, has accused Brown of keeping Wellington in the dark over the China deal, despite repeatedly asking for details.

“We have concerns about the Chinese state military apparatus penetrating deeply into a country that is part of the New Zealand Realm,” said a New Zealand government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

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The Cook Islands and China have said there is no security dimension to Friday’s deal, the text of which has not been released publicly.

But the agreement is expected to touch on deep-sea mining, strategic infrastructure such as ports or wharves and maritime security, all of which have security implications for New Zealand and the Cook Islands, the New Zealand official said.

Jason Young, director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Center at Victoria University of Wellington, said the lack of details was “deeply uncomfortable” for New Zealand considering the Cook Islands remains part of its realm.

“A comprehensive strategic partnership can range from, ‘Let’s have regular meetings and talk about political issues’ or ‘Let’s do more trade’ … to ‘How about we have policing? How about we set up a research unit on surveillance? How about we have military-to-military cooperation?’” he said.

The Cook Islands gained partial independence from New Zealand in 1965, but it still uses the New Zealand dollar and its residents receive New Zealand citizenship and passports. In December, Brown said he wanted his country to have its own passports, but he shelved the idea last week after objections from Wellington.

Neither Brown nor the Cook Islands Foreign Ministry could be reached for comment Friday. Brown said last week that his government’s engagement with New Zealand had been “consistent, respectful and open,” and suggested in a social media post on Thursday that more details would be made public “in the coming days.”

The China-Cook Islands partnership comes amid a broader push by Beijing to increase its influence in the Pacific: China has signed policing agreements with both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, drawing concern from New Zealand, the United States and other Western allies.

Beijing has also convinced several Pacific islands — including Nauru last year, and Kiribati and the Solomons in 2019 — to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

Very few of China’s Belt and Road initiatives or other agreements in the Pacific have ever been released, Young said. If the China-Cook Islands partnership does see the light of day, it will be because of Peters’s public pressure campaign, he said.

One area that appears likely to be covered in the agreement is deep-sea mining.

The Cook Islands has one of the world’s big exclusive economic zones, covering nearly 800,000 square miles — roughly the size of Mexico — and it is rich with polymetallic nodules containing essential metals such as manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper, all of which are needed for technologies ranging from electric cars to advanced weapons systems.

Brown visited China’s National Deep Sea Center in Qingdao, touting in a Facebook post Thursday “new areas of collaboration” between the countries, including “expanding our marine research capabilities through partnerships” and “bringing new expertise to our ongoing efforts in deep-sea exploration and sustainable ocean management.”

While many Pacific island nations have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining — which they see as a threat to tourism, tuna stocks and other marine wildlife — the Cook Islands has emerged as one of its biggest proponents in the Pacific.

Brown has described deep-sea mining as a way for his nation of roughly 15,000 people to move beyond a reliance on tourism, while raising funds to combat the impacts of climate change and also contributing to cleaner technologies.

In 2022, Brown’s government awarded three exploration licenses to companies to search for metals to mine, a process that involves sucking up nodules from the ocean floor and could release vast amounts of carbon. None of the companies were Chinese.

Local environmentalists fear the comprehensive strategic partnership with China will accelerate deep-sea mining in the Cook Islands, even as they, too, remain unaware of the details.

“We have no idea what is being signed,” said Alanna Smith, director of Te Ipukarea Society, an environmental organization that has called for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining while its potential impacts on marine ecosystems are studied. “That says a lot about a lack of transparency the government has with the people.”

Brown has said mining would be done hundreds of miles from shore and only if it is environmentally safe. But Smith said the government’s environmental assessments aren’t independent, and she fears deep-sea mining could affect tuna stocks on which her nation depends.

“China are all about development and speeding things up, and it’s worrying,” she said. “How much do we really need to develop and how quickly? What does this development really look like for the Cooks?”

Donald Trump’s recent inauguration adds another dimension, said David Capie, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, as New Zealand will not want to seem like it has been weak on China.

China’s claim that the agreement has nothing to do with security should be taken with a grain of salt, he added.

“You can say there is no security dimension, there’s no defense dimension, but there’s obviously deep-sea mining with surveillance and ocean cooperation,” Capie said. “The line starts to blur in terms of potential dual-use implications.”

In September, the Cook Islands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Chinese support for a “multiuse transport hub in the Northern Cook Islands.”

The agreement is a boost for Beijing at a time when tensions with the Trump administration are rising.

“Despite having reasons to expand security cooperation with Pacific island nations, in reality China still faces significant challenges in doing so,” said Zhao Minghao, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Instead, China has become “more focused in maintaining its cooperative relationships with many developing countries including the Cook Islands” after Panama’s recent withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative, he said.

The China-Cook Islands agreement stands in contrast to Trump’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Biden administration saw as a key plank in challenging Chinese influence in the Pacific.

“While the Trump administration seemed unwilling for the U.S. government to continue allocating resources for international development aid, China still values cooperation in this field,” Zhao said. “Organizations like China’s International Development Cooperation Agency are very active in the Pacific island countries.”

Vic Chiang in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

Forecasters are keeping tabs on the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday.

Gusty to locally damaging winds and severe hail are the main concerns, but a tornado or two can’t be ruled out. The National Weather Service has drawn up a Level 2 out of 5 risk for severe weather — and it includes Interstate 5, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

The greatest chance for severe weather is in Washington state, Oregon and northern/western Idaho. Thunderstorms will bubble up during the day Wednesday between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time, reaching peak intensity shortly before sunset and waning after about 9 p.m. Storms may first hit over the Cascades.

Thunderstorms are somewhat of a rarity in the Pacific Northwest anyway, happening barely five to 10 days a year in coastal Washington and Oregon. There isn’t usually a notable uptick in thunder activity until the second week of April.

The ingredients are coming together in a somewhat classic pattern favorable for active weather.

It’s the first time the Storm Prediction Center has drawn a “significant severe” hail risk area in their maps in the Pacific Northwest, connoting the potential for localized hail up to the size of golf balls. It’s also the first time that a “slight” tornado risk has been drawn in western Oregon or Washington.

A swirl of low pressure is present over the northeast Pacific. It’s akin to a high-altitude bowling ball of cold air, low pressure and counterclockwise spin. It’s swinging toward the coastline and will arrive during the latter half of Wednesday.

Ahead of it, warm, humid air is being scooped north. Temperatures 10 to 15 degrees — or more — above average will be common across the West. Downtown Seattle is forecast to hit 72 degrees Wednesday, surpassing the record of 71 degrees set back in 2015. Data dates back to 1894; the average high is 56 degrees.

Yakima in Washington state could hit 73 degrees, flirting with the record of 74 set in 2015; Salem, Oregon, is also forecast to hit 73, a degree shy of its record.

Very bizarre to see 2000-3000 J/kg of CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy, or thunderstorm fuel) in the Pacific Northwest.For severe weather, we usually look at values over 1500 units.Today we're nearly doubling that.Deep South-esque thunderstorm fuel. Anomalous. pic.twitter.com/8HAVL4TFYc

— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) March 26, 2025

The combination of warmth and moisture will result in instability, or thunderstorm fuel, building across the region. That will allow thunderstorms to blossom during the mid- to late afternoon. Up to 2,500 units of thunderstorm fuel will be present by midafternoon; it usually takes only 1,000 or 1,500 units to spawn severe weather.

Those thunderstorms will tower into an environment characterized by strong winds aloft. Our parent low-pressure system is affecting the jet stream, resulting in a jet stream “dip” and fierce winds swinging overhead. Thunderstorms that grow tall enough will tap into that jet stream momentum and could drag strong gusts to the surface.

Cold air aloft, meanwhile, will support penny- to quarter-size hail in most storms. There’s an outside chance a few storms could drop hail bigger than golf balls.

And there is at least some chance of an isolated tornado. Weather models are bullish in printing out some rotation tracks across the region, indicating the potential for a couple of storms to become rotating supercells. Any tornado risk will be maximized near Interstate 5 and perhaps in the Willamette Valley.

Thunderstorms will bubble up during peak heating after about 4 p.m., and be most numerous and intense from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. By mid-evening, they may coalesce into one or more lines or clusters with an attendant damaging wind risk.

WASHINGTON —

Greenland’s representative in the United States met recently with at least one ambassador from the Pacific Islands to learn more about a political arrangement that some think could create an opportunity for the Arctic island and Washington, VOA has learned.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his interest in either buying or taking control of Greenland, a resource-rich semiautonomous territory of Denmark, noting its strategic importance and position in the Arctic Ocean where Russia and China are rapidly advancing. But there has been pushback from the island’s residents, political leaders, Denmark and Europe.

Greenland representatives have declined to comment to VOA on their meeting that focused on a framework that Pacific Island nations have with Washington — known as the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA. The compacts give the United States military access to three strategic Pacific Islands — the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau — in exchange for economic aid.

Jackson Soram, ambassador to the United States from the Federated States of Micronesia, told VOA that the discussions took place at the end of January and focused on "basic questions" on the "provisions of economic assistance, and also the security and defense provisions of the compacts."

Soram said he met with representatives from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-ruled Danish territory.

Alexander Gray, a former National Security Council chief of staff during the first Trump administration who worked on Pacific Island issues, told VOA he encouraged the Pacific Islands’ ambassadors to conduct these meetings.

"[The Greenlanders] want independence from Denmark," Gray, who is now a managing partner of American Global Strategies, said in an emailed response. "An independent Greenland, with a tiny population and the second-least densely populated geography on the planet, will quickly become dominated and its sovereignty undermined by Beijing and Moscow."

Russia has been reopening bases in the region even as Beijing has invested more than $90 billion in infrastructure projects in the Arctic Circle. Both the United States and Denmark have military bases in Greenland.

Gray said arctic dominance by Moscow and Beijing poses "a unique strategic threat" to the United States. He said a COFA "would allow Greenland to maintain its sovereignty, while allowing the U.S. to ensure that sovereignty is truly protected."

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has repeatedly told Trump that Greenland is "not for sale." But Monday, she said Copenhagen welcomes additional U.S. military investment in the strategic island.

"So, if this is about securing our part of the world, we can find a way forward," she said.

US-Greenland defense agreement

Some analysts say that neither Washington nor Nuuk needs a COFA agreement to increase the U.S. military presence in Greenland. In 2004, the United States, Greenland and Denmark signed the Igaliku Agreement to reduce the U.S. military presence in Greenland to a single air base, the Thule Air Base, which has been renamed Pitfuffik Space Base. It provides Washington with missile defense and space surveillance.

The 2004 agreement provides for "any significant changes to U.S. military operations or facilities" in Greenland to be made through consultation between Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen.

"Washington can already achieve its objectives through working with Greenland and Denmark," Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote last month on CSIS’s website.

A Danish Institute for International Studies policy brief in 2022 pointed out that COFA has created economic dependence between the Marshall Islands and the United States, as U.S. donor money makes up 70% of the Marshall Islands’ total GDP. This is the opposite of what Greenland’s leaders say they want.

Search for independence

A 2009 law called the Act on Greenland Self-Government outlines a "road map" —-drawn up by Nuuk and Copenhagen — for an independent Greenland, which requires a successful referendum.

In his New Year’s address, Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said, "The upcoming new election period must, together with the citizens, create these new steps," opening the door for a referendum during parliamentary elections in April.

A 2019 survey suggested that more than two-thirds of Greenlanders want independence at some point. Yet in a poll released in January by two newspapers in Denmark and Greenland, 85% say they do not want to be part of the United States. Fifty-five percent, however, see Trump’s interest in Greenland as an opportunity.

Gray told VOA that the U.S., Denmark and Greenland should enter trilateral discussions for a compact.

"Working together, Washington, Copenhagen, and Nuuk can find common ground and move forward on a post-independence arrangement that works for all parties," he said in an emailed response.

Read Greenland's 2010 letter to the United Nations

As far back as 2010, Greenland told the United Nations it was exploring the idea of negotiating independence through a "free association" with Denmark.

SEE ALSO:

Read Greenland's 2010 letter to the United Nations

Egede said he is ready to meet with Trump, but, "We do not want to be Danes. We do not want to be Americans."

Soram said he is trying to get ambassadors from Palau and the Marshall Islands to attend additional meetings with Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark.

After days of unseasonably warm weather, the Pacific Northwest faces a threat of isolated severe thunderstorms Wednesday that could unleash lightning, large hail, damaging winds and heavy downpours of rain — and possibly even spawn a rare but brief tornado.

Early Wednesday morning, signs of the weather to come were already apparent with a thunderstorm and a few lightning strikes reported over Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

“The big show is coming later this afternoon,” said Dana Felton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Seattle.

Just after 3 p.m., the agency issued a severe thunderstorm watch, in effect until 9 p.m., for an elongated area that straddles western Washington and Oregon and includes the Insterstate 5 corridor and Seattle and Portland.

A watch indicates that the weather is predicted to escalate and people should prepare. The Weather Service will issue a warning if hazardous thunderstorms are occurring and people need to take instant action.

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The forecast is significant in a region where severe thunderstorms are rare. Even rarer are the potential for tornadoes and hail more than two inches in diameter, meteorologists said.

“This is about as high-end of an outlook as we typically get here in the Pacific Northwest, only once or less per year west of the Cascades,” said Lee Picard, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Portland.

Chance for thunderstorms comes after warm spell.

Thunderstorms can form when warm, moist air clashes with cooler air, something that rarely happens in the Pacific Northwest, which is dominated by cooler air coming off the Pacific Ocean and doesn’t have a source of warm, moist air. Thunderstorms are far more common across the Southern states, which see a consistent flow of warm water vapor from the Gulf.

But all the ingredients are coming together on Wednesday: The Pacific Northwest has been experiencing unusually warm temperatures in the 70s this week amid a streak of springtime heat along the West Coast. Warm air near the ground will collide with a cool, wet storm on Wednesday, creating unstable conditions in the atmosphere that can generate thunderstorms.

As meteorologists fine-tuned their forecasts ahead of the afternoon, the storm was spinning off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and was setting up wind patterns that were favorable to support strong to severe thunderstorms.

“Everything is coming together just right,” Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Service said late Wednesday morning.

Thunderstorms are considered severe when they produce winds of 58 miles per hour or greater and hail at least one inch in diameter. Winds with the storms on Wednesday could reach 60 m.p.h. and hail could measure up to two and a half inches in diameter. The threat is highest in the afternoon and evening.

“There aren’t too many events where we’re in the running to have hail the size of quarters, to even bigger,” said Colby Neuman, a meteorologist with the Weather Service. “There is a chance hail could be the size of golf balls with a storm or two.”

Hail as large as golf balls — about 1.75 inches — can put dents in cars.

The last time the Pacific Northwest saw significant large hail was in August 2014, when a few thunderstorms produced dime-to-nickel-size hail. One dropped ice as big as golf balls.

Forecast risk of tornadoes for Wednesday

Risk

Moderate

High

Tornadoes are even less common than thunderstorms in the Pacific Northwest. Over the last decade, weak ones have occurred about two or three times a year in Washington and Oregon, meteorologists said. They’re usually a zero, the lowest level on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which runs up to five. On Dec. 18, 2018, an EF2 struck near the Seattle suburb of Port Orchard. Even more notable, on April 5, 1972, an EF3 ripped through Vancouver, Wash., damaging homes and killing six people.

On Wednesday, there are two regions of tornado risk, one higher than the other. An area along the Interstate 5 corridor, including Seattle and Eugene, Ore., faces a 2 percent chance for tornadoes to develop. But within that, the Storm Prediction Center has outlined an area that faces a slightly higher threat (5 to 9 percent) within a sliver that includes Portland and Salem and stretches to just south of Tacoma, Wash.

“I think it’s important to say there is a small threat and people should be prepared and know how to respond,” Mr. Neuman said. The Weather Service advises people to go to their basement or an interior room of their home if tornado warnings are issued.