Cook Islands will receive a “one off grant” of approximately $4 million from China, following the signing of the Joint Action Plan for the 2025-2030 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership last week.

Prime Minister Mark Brown, who returned yesterday from his state visit to China with his delegation, also told the media that “there has been no projects we’ve signed up to at this stage”.

However, Brown said that “in the coming months, in the coming years, there may be some projects that they can formalise”.

“In terms of grant funding, there has been a grant allocation provided to the Cook Islands for potential projects that we may look at in the future and this amounts to about $4 million,” Brown said in response to a question from Cook Islands News.

“Our ministries will be looking carefully at where they would look to allocate that funding as part of projects or initiatives that we might want to promote. And at this stage, it’s looking like primarily in the area of renewable energies.”

Brown said the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement was an overarching framework for engagement.