Cook Islands: a Pacific haven for sanctions-dodging Russian and Iranian oil tankers?

Some 20 tankers registered in the microstate allegedly smuggled Russian and Iranian fuel between 2024 and 2025 amid lax oversight

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An oil tanker called the Eagle S (left), which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands, sails in the Gulf of Finland last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:50pm, 2 Dec 2025

Dozens of oil tankers suspected of smuggling contraband crude for Russia and Iran have been using a beachside office in the tropical South Pacific to cover their tracks, an analysis of sanctions data has revealed.

Nestled next to a pizza shop in the far-flung Cook Islands is the modest headquarters of one of the fastest-growing shipping registries in the world.

Without ever setting foot in the palm-fringed microstate, foreign shipowners can pay Maritime Cook Islands to sail under its star-studded flag.

United States sanctions data identifies 20 tankers registered in the Cook Islands suspected of smuggling Russian and Iranian fuel between 2024 and 2025.

A further 14 Cook Islands-flagged tankers are blacklisted on a separate database of British sanctions covering the same period.

New Zealand, by far the Cook Islands’ closest diplomatic partner, said it was “alarming and infuriating” to see sanctions efforts undermined.

“New Zealand continues to hold serious concerns about how the Cook Islands has been managing its shipping registry, which it has repeatedly expressed to the Cook Islands government over many years,” said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

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