Wednesday 4 June 2025 | Written by Supplied | Published in Letters to the Editor, Opinion
Some of these collapses could have been avoided if we hadn’t behaved so badly.
I fear that Maritime Cook Islands is going to be involved in the next collapse of our tourism economy. It appears to the world that the Cook Islands is flagging the Russian shadow fleet. This I think is because the tanker Eagle S anchor dragging activities got close to bringing NATO into war with Russia and starting WW3.
This still might happen BTW. There are now clashes between the Estonian Navy and the Russian Air Force. The clash happened over a tanker suspected of being part of the Russian shadow fleet that was passing through the Baltic Sea to Saint Petersburg showing no flag. Clashes will escalate.
Maritime Cook Islands writes in your newspaper that they are registering ships according to international maritime law and are removing sanction ships as they are listed. Fine. This is good but it is not enough.
In the news, on the internet, any articles about the Russian shadow fleet seem to always feature a picture the Eagle S proudly flying the Cook Islands flag. The Cook Islands has become synonymous with the Russian Shadow Fleet. Maritime Cook Islands has pointed out that the Eagle S has yet to be sanctioned but that does not seem to matter to the world press and the internet. The world thinks Eagle S is in the Russian Shadow Fleet.
Some thinkers should know better. Lloyd’s List/RISC database clearly think we actively want to flag the Russian Shadow fleet. Even the UK Government Sanctions lists on 9 May says that the tankers C Viking, SOFOS and ARABESCA are currently believed to fly the Cook Islands flag. I can find no reference that they are. Are they MCI?
We are doomed to go down in history (just like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand started WW1), as the flag of the ship that started WW3.
We have to stop the meme that “the Cook Islands flags the Russian Shadow Fleet”. Possibly the Minister of Shipping (Transport) could with maximum publicity ask Lloyd’s List, UK Government, EU and NZ for help in identifying vessels of the Russian Shadow Fleet. After all, we are part of the British commonwealth and NZ is part of the “Coalition of the Willing” helping Ukraine win the war against Russia.
(Name and address supplied)
Reply – Kia Orana. Thank you for your mail below and your invitation to respond. The factual basis of the proposed Letter to the Editor is wrong.
The Cook Islands Ship Registry does not have any vessels trading in Russian petroleum product and has not had for the past two months.
Kind regards.
Tony Manarangi,
Maritime Cook Islands.
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