The Cook Islands maintains diplomatic relations with various countries and is a member of multilateral organisations. While the country is in free association with New Zealand, which can act on the Cook Islands' "delegated authority [...] to assist the Cooks Islands" in foreign affairs,^[1] the Cook Islands nevertheless enters into treaty obligations and otherwise "interacts with the international community as a sovereign and independent state."^[1]

In the 1980s the Cook Islands became a member of several United Nations specialized agencies: the World Health Organization in 1984, the Food and Agriculture Organization and UNESCO in 1985, and the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1986. The Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs records that in 1988 New Zealand declared "that its future participation in international agreements would no longer extend to the Cook Islands..."^[2] In 1991 the Cook Islands became a full member of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Preparatory Committee and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC), which the Repertory of Practice describes as "further evidence that the international community had accepted the Cook Islands as a “State” under international law."^[2] The United Nations Secretariat therefore "recognized the full treaty-making capacity of the Cook Islands" in 1992^[2] and the Secretary-General, in his capacity as the depository of multilateral treaties, decided that the Cook Islands could participate in treaties that were open to "all states".^[3]

List of countries with which the Cook Islands maintains diplomatic relations:

More information #, Country ...

#	Country	Date
1	Norway	18 July 1991[4]
2	Malaysia	2 May 1992[5]
3	New Zealand	1993[6]
4	Australia	1994[6]
5	Nauru	1994[6]
6	Portugal	12 August 1995[7]
7	Papua New Guinea	1995[6]
8	South Africa	9 February 1996[8]
9	Iran	1996[6]
10	China	25 July 1997[9]
11	United Kingdom	4 December 1997[10]
12	Spain	29 January 1998[11]
13	India	May 1998[12][13]
14	Fiji	14 July 1998[14]
—	Holy See	29 April 1999[15]
15	France	19 October 1999[16]
16	Germany	11 September 2001[17]
17	Cuba	2 September 2002[18]
18	East Timor	2002[6]
19	Jamaica	14 May 2003[19]
20	Italy	9 October 2003[20]
21	Belgium	6 April 2005[21]
22	Thailand	24 May 2005[22]
23	Israel	April 2008[23]
24	Czech Republic	12 May 2008[24]
25	Turkey	20 October 2008[25]
26	Switzerland	7 March 2011[26]
27	Japan	16 June 2011[27]
28	Netherlands	16 August 2011[28]
29	Philippines	12 December 2011[29]
30	Singapore	6 August 2012[30]
31	South Korea	12 February 2013[31]
32	Samoa	30 August 2013[32]
33	Tuvalu	August 2013[33]
34	Solomon Islands	1 September 2013[34]
35	Kiribati	3 September 2013[35]
36	Marshall Islands	3 September 2013[35]
37	Palau	3 September 2013[35]
—	Niue	2013[6]
38	Vanuatu	2013[6]
39	Federated States of Micronesia	24 September 2014[36]
40	Tonga	18 November 2014[37]
—	Kosovo	28 May 2015[38]
41	Brazil	21 August 2015[39]
42	Chile	3 August 2016[40]
43	Peru	September 2017[41]
44	Malta	6 October 2017[42]
45	Iceland	13 October 2017[43]
46	Antigua and Barbuda	9 November 2017[44]
47	United Arab Emirates	5 August 2018[45]
48	Estonia	25 August 2018[46]
49	Hungary	20 September 2018[47]
50	Greece	20 October 2018[48]
51	Indonesia	12 July 2019[49]
52	Kuwait	8 December 2021[50]
53	Vietnam	26 April 2022[51]
54	Ireland	21 November 2022[52]
55	Saudi Arabia	11 April 2023[53]
56	Canada	20 May 2023[54]
57	United States	25 September 2023[55]
58	Ghana	8 November 2023[56]
59	Mexico	21 November 2023[57]
60	Panama	8 March 2024[58]
61	Bangladesh	11 April 2024[59]

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The following countries have established consular relations with the Cook Islands only.

•  Monaco 2007 or before^{[note 1]}

• ACP, AOSIS, AsDB, ESCAP (associate), FAO, ICAO, IMO, ICC, ICFTU, IFAD, ILO^[65] IOC, OPCW, Pacific Islands Forum, Red Cross/Red Crescent, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, WHO, WMO^[66]
• Commonwealth of Nations – the Cook Islands are part of the Commonwealth, but is not a member state, being a dependency of New Zealand, whose Commonwealth membership covers the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau, as well as New Zealand itself.
• In November 2011, the Cook Islands were one of the eight founding members of Polynesian Leaders Group, a regional grouping intended to cooperate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment.^[67][68][69]
• The Cook Islands participate in the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations regulatory body for the shipping trade.

• Party to the following treaties and conventions: Biodiversity Convention, Cotonou Agreement, Geneva Conventions, POPs Project, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, UNCLOS, UNFCCC and its Kyoto protocol, Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,^{[note 2]} International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, Biological Weapons Convention, Convention of the International Mobile Satellite Organization^[71]

• List of diplomatic missions of the Cook Islands
• List of diplomatic missions in the Cook Islands
• Foreign relations of Niue
• Foreign relations of New Zealand
• Politics of the Cook Islands