Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 12 May 2026 – The Cook Islands and Central Province of Papua New Guinea earlier this week signed a Provincial Partnership Arrangement, a landmark agreement that gives formal shape to a relationship rooted in more than 150 years of shared history, faith and culture.
The signing took place in Port Moresby between Prime Minister Hon. Mark Brown and Governor of Central Province Hon. Rufina Peter on the margins of the Melanesia Ocean Summit. The arrangement covers cooperation across seven key areas: economic diversification; youth development; sport, health and community wellbeing; cultural exchange; historical, faith and cultural exchanges; fisheries and marine resources; and tourism.
Speaking at the signing, Prime Minister Hon. Mark Brown said:
“This partnership is not something we are beginning today. It is something we are finally writing down. The connection between our peoples was made over 150 years ago by Cook Islands missionaries who gave their lives to this land. We honour them by building on what they started.”
In 1872, six Cook Islands missionary couples trained at Takamoa Theological Seminary in Rarotonga arrived on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, becoming the first Christian missionaries to settle permanently in what is now Central Province. Among them was Ruatoka of Mangaia, who served in Port Moresby until his death in 1903.
Their legacy is still felt today in the hymns sung in the Cook Islands choral style, Imene Tuki, which are still performed by communities in Hanuabada, and in the enduring sense of kinship shared between both peoples.
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