Dear Editor, It’s been widely reported in many news outlets that after President Trump ripped into Ukraine President Zelensky, European leaders came to their senses, realising that America couldn’t be counted on to stand with them to counter Russian hostility.

A chain reaction for the need of self-defence in the era of Trump set policies on the table that would have been unthinkable just days before.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, there was a law change to allow for unlimited spending on defence and security. The move to unlock $652 billion over the next decade has been put in motion. Germany and the rest of Europe have passed a turning point, they no longer will be dependent on the American cavalry coming to their rescue.

The Trump shock jolted Germany into spending billions on defence.

In France, President Macron is looking to extend the protection of its nuclear arsenal to its European allies.

German Chancellor Merz is in talks with France and the UK, Europe’s two nuclear powers to protect the whole of Europe.

Poland PM Turk welcomed the idea and even called for Poland to consider getting nuclear weapons itself.

Now, Poland and Baltic states Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, all neighbours to Russia, have pulled out of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty on landmines, long considered a key milestone in the end to mass warfare. Lithuania has already announced the purchase of 85,000 landmines, Poland is eyeing 1 million domestically. Lithuania also withdrew from the international treaty against cluster munitions last month becoming the first signatory to do so.

Military conscription has also made a comeback on the continent. Denmark made women eligible for obligatory conscription from 2026.

Poland has announced plans for every adult to undergo military training. Even famously neutral countries are reconsidering their positions.

Meanwhile, here in the South Pacific, China has gained an overwhelming foothold in its vision to reshape the world.

China has provided military aid to all four Pacific Island countries with a standing military, Fiji, PNG, Tonga and Vanuatu.

In Tonga, China has provided military aid to His Majesty’s Armed Forces, which include land, naval and air components. In the 1990s the Tongan government controversially sold Tongan passports to Chinese nationalist and residents of Hong Kong enabling them to settle in Tonga and leading to the appearance of a visible Chinese community. Now 4 per cent of the total population of Tonga is Chinese.

PM Mark Brown just recently had his proposal for the Cook Islands to have its own passport shot down by the people of the Cook Islands.

Tonga also accepted China’s offer of security support to host the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in 2024. I’m glad the Cook Islands is not hosting that Forum meeting this year.

Fiji has one of the closest military relationships with Beijing in the region. China has regularly supported the Fijian military with vehicles, uniforms and personnel training. In 2018, China granted Fiji US$4.6 million to Fiji's armed forces. China also gifted Fiji a hydrographic and surveillance vessel to the Fijian navy and in April 2022 donated another 47 specialised military vehicles.

PNG is the biggest recipient of Chinese military aid in the region, having received more than $18 million in 20 years. This aid ranged from military infrastructure and logistical support to personnel training and over 100 vehicles for the PNG Defence Force, including armoured vehicles and troop carriers,

Vanuatu has a small mobile military force that has been supported with regular training of its personnel by China and was also the recipient of 14 military vehicles delivered by China.

According to a US Department of Defence report, China could use Vanuatu as a deployment and fuelling hub to deny US forces the ability to project power by threatening their logistical supply. The report also assessed that China has probably already made overtures to gain a military logistics facility in Vanuatu as well as neighbouring Solomon Islands with the overall goal to support naval, air and ground forces protection. And last September, China and the Solomon Islands agreed to explore other projects, including the development of a multi-use transportation hub in the Northern Cook Islands. Also in September of 2024, the Cook Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to China’s support for a multi-use transportation hub in the Northern Cook Islands, if that doesn’t raise any red flags then you are too smug to care about anyone but yourself.

During World War II, the South Pacific was a battleground between Japan and the US, with an airstrip and naval base in Penrhyn and an airstrip in Aitutaki playing a key role in the Pacific theatre. Now with the very real threat of another World War on the horizon, PM Brown and his coalition partner government has signed a deal with the Chinese that has to be stopped immediately. I don’t know what is going to happen next but if the Chinese come in here and start all their projects of building ports and wharves and ship building to gain military logistic facilities for naval, air and ground forces, then we are in for a world of hurt.

By the way the price of gold has gone through the roof and is projected to skyrocket even further, the hoarding of gold is a harbinger of bad news.

I have a lot more to write but I will stop here, hopefully I’ll write more next week and none of it is good for the Cook Islands, thanks to Mark Brown.

Steve Boggs.