Last updated in November 2009
Germany recognized the Cook Islands as a self-governing state in March 2001. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on 11 September 2001. The German ambassador in Wellington/New Zealand is also accredited to the Cook Islands. In the country itself, the Federal Republic of Germany is represented by an honorary consul (based in Avarua).
Small-scale technical cooperation measures with an annual financial volume of up to EUR 15,000 are presently being implemented on the Cook Islands. A basic agreement providing for the secondment of development aid workers by the German Development Service (DED) was already concluded several years ago. The Cook Islands were involved in the Pacific German Regional Forestry Project, which until 2008 was jointly implemented in a number of Pacific states by the German government-owned Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The project components on the Cook Islands included the establishment of eight tree nurseries on five different islands. The GTZ’s new regional project “Adapting to Climate Change in the Pacific Island Region”, running from 2009 to 2012 and providing consulting services, is designed to strengthen the capacity of selected project countries and the SPC to adapt to climate change in the region. Worth EUR 4.2 million, the project will run for a total of four years.
In 2008, the Cook Islands exported goods worth EUR 0.1 million to Germany (thus ranking 200th among countries supplying German imports) and imported goods worth EUR 9.1 million from Germany (thus ranking 183rd among buyers of German exports).
