Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said he would release soon the full details of a comprehensive strategic partnership deal signed between China and his country, which has raised concerns in New Zealand with which it has constitutional ties.

The Cook Islands' prime minister on Tuesday defended a new partnership pact with China and urged his country not to depend on handouts from "big brother" New Zealand. "We can choose to be a country that relies on handouts and is dependent on our big brother or we can choose to be a country that can stand on its own two feet and can engage in constructive partnerships of mutual benefit,

Since 1965, the Cook Islands has been a country in free association with New Zealand. Its citizens have New Zealand passports and all the perks of that – access to New Zealand's