New Zealand has rejected a proposal by the Cook Islands to introduce a separate passport for its citizens while allowing them to retain New Zealand citizenship.
The Cook Islands, a self-governing island nation in the Pacific Ocean, is in “free association” with New Zealand, which is responsible for New Zealand's foreign affairs and defence.
Cook Islanders can also live, work and access health care in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Mark Brown had asked Cook Islanders to get their own passports “to recognize our people” – but New Zealand said that was not possible unless the Cook Islands became fully independent.
Documents first released to local channel 1News and seen by Reuters showed Brown had been pushing for months for a separate passport and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, while hoping to maintain its relationship as a satellite state of New Zealand.
Reports say that tensions between the two countries have escalated over this issue, as leaders of the two countries held a series of talks over the past few months.
Radio New Zealand quoted Brown as saying, “New Zealanders are free to hold dual passports, and there are a number of New Zealanders who hold passports from other countries.”
“It's exactly the same thing we would do,” he said.
But some Cook Islanders criticized their government for not consulting on the proposal.
Thomas Wynne, a Cook Islander who works in Wellington, told local news outlet Cook Islands News: “The real question is what do the people of the Cook Islands want and have they been consulted on this critical decision? Or will it be a decision?” Created by the few for the benefit of the many?
Other Cook Island residents told 1News they were concerned such a move would also impact access to services such as their right to health care in New Zealand.
But on Sunday, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters effectively ended the conversation, declaring that separate passports and citizenship are only available to fully independent and sovereign nations.
He added that any move to change the current relationship between the two countries must be put forward through a referendum.
“Such a referendum would allow the people of the Cook Islands to evaluate whether they prefer the status quo, with New Zealand citizenship and passports, or full independence,” he said in a statement to the media.
“If the goal of the Cook Islands government is independence from New Zealand, then of course that is a conversation we are prepared to start.”
According to 1 News, Brown later responded to Peters' statement by saying the Cook Islands “will not implement anything that impacts our important status (with New Zealand).”
Approximately 100,000 Cook Islands citizens live in New Zealand, while only about 15,000 live in the Cook Islands themselves.
Another small Pacific island, Niue, also shares a similar relationship with New Zealand, being internally self-governing but dependent on Wellington for defense and most foreign affairs.
Autonomous territories elsewhere in the world, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Puerto Rico, are subject to the United States on defense and foreign affairs.
