Cook Islands–United States Strategic Framework for Critical Minerals Research and Supply Chain Security

Mechanism

The Cook Islands–US Strategic Framework was signed on the sidelines of the inaugural 2026 US Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington DC, the same event at which the US launched FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) and signed MOUs with Peru, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Morocco, and the UK, and framework instruments with Argentina and the UAE. The joint statement was published on 5 February 2026.

The framework's architecture is structurally distinct from all other bilaterals signed at the Ministerial. Every other Feb-2026 cohort instrument focuses on mining finance (upstream investment facilitation, processing, DFC/EXIM Project Vault pathways) in jurisdictions with terrestrial mineral deposits. The Cook Islands instrument instead centres on deep-sea minerals — specifically polymetallic nodule deposits in the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), one of the world's largest documented nodule resource areas at 4,500–5,300 m depth on the abyssal plain. The Cook Islands SBMA estimates the Cook Islands EEZ hosts nodule resources containing approximately 16 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules with significant concentrations of cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese.

Three structural features distinguish this instrument from its cohort siblings:

1. Sovereignty-preservation clause. The framework explicitly reaffirms the Cook Islands' full sovereign control over its seabed minerals and decision-making authority. No other Feb-2026 bilateral contains a comparable clause. This reflects a political requirement by Rarotonga: Cook Islands participation in the FORGE architecture could not be read as ceding ISA-body regulatory discretion or domestic licensing authority to US industrial-demand interests.

2. First deep-sea-minerals typology filing on the register. Prior Cook Islands IPTM entries cover SBMA exploration licensing (2022) and harvesting regulations (2024) — domestic governance instruments. This framework is the first bilateral demand-side cooperation instrument for deep-sea minerals on the register, establishing the US as the explicit off-take-and-investment-partner orientation for Cook Islands nodule development.

3. US–Cook Islands Working Group. The framework establishes a dedicated coordination mechanism to share geological data, mapping results, and expertise — institutionalising the relationship at an operational level beyond a one-time political declaration.

The Cook Islands brings: its SBMA regulatory expertise developed since the 2009 Seabed Minerals Act, a commercially ready licensing regime, and the world's largest undeveloped EEZ nodule resource. The US brings: market depth (defence and advanced-technology manufacturing demand for cobalt, nickel, manganese), NOAA technical capability in deep-sea geological mapping, and DFC/EXIM investment and insurance instruments.

Downstream implications

• First Cook Islands–jurisdiction bilateral-cooperation filing on the register. The existing CK action stack covers domestic SBMA licensing and harvesting regulations. This is the first filing in which the Cook Islands features as a bilateral strategic partner in a US critical-minerals supply-chain architecture rather than as a domestic regulator.
• First deep-sea-minerals bilateral-framework filing globally on the register. This instrument opens a new sectoral category distinct from land-based critical-minerals MOUs. Deep-sea minerals require different governance frameworks, ISA interface arrangements, and environmental monitoring regimes — the Working Group structure may become a template for other Pacific EEZ nodule jurisdictions (Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru-ISA area).
• Peers the ISA Mining Code timeline. ISA Council deliberations on the exploitation regulations (Mining Code) remain unresolved. The US–Cook Islands framework creates a bilateral fast-track pathway that operates alongside (and potentially in tension with) the ISA multilateral governance track — reinforcing the US position that high-standard bilateral frameworks can proceed without waiting for the Mining Code to be finalised.
• Great-power-competition dimension. China's state-owned enterprises (CNMC, China Minmetals) hold ISA exploration contracts for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone adjacent to Cook Islands EEZ waters. The CSIS analysis frames this framework as a US move to pre-empt Chinese commercial and strategic positioning in Pacific deep-sea mineral governance.
• Deep Sea Minerals Corp. (CSE: SEAS) exposure. The company is advancing Cook Islands-licensed nodule exploration assets (NOAA cooperation already underway) and explicitly cited the US–Cook Islands framework in its February 2026 investor update as validating the strategic direction of its programme.

Open questions

• Will the Working Group produce a geological-mapping partnership with NOAA comparable to the NOAA seabed-mapping programmes already underway in US EEZ waters?
• Does the sovereignty-preservation clause foreclose any form of US co-governance or EXIM/DFC conditionality on licensing decisions by SBMA?
• How does this framework interact with the ISA Mining Code timeline — does the US-CK bilateral Working Group represent a de facto pre-emptive governance bypass?
• Will other Pacific EEZ nodule jurisdictions (Kiribati, Tuvalu) follow Cook Islands in signing FORGE-adjacent bilateral frameworks with the US?
• What role does the Trump EO on Unleashing American Offshore Critical Minerals (2026) play in the demand-side architecture — is Cook Islands EEZ nodule cooperation explicitly contemplated under that EO's offshore minerals mandate?