New Zealand has rejected a Cook Islands proposal to introduce a separate passport for its citizens while allowing them to retain New Zealand citizenship.
The Cook Islands, an autonomous Pacific nation, is in “free association” with New Zealand, which is responsible for the former's foreign affairs and defense.
Cook Islanders can also live, work and access healthcare in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Mark Brown had called for Cook Islands residents to have their own passports “to recognize our own people” – but New Zealand said this was not possible unless the Cook Islands became fully independent .
Documents first released to local channel 1News and seen by Reuters reportedly showed Brown had been pushing for months for a separate passport and citizenship for Cook Islands residents, while hoping to maintain its relationship as the country of the kingdom of New Zealand.
Nearly 100,000 Cook Islands nationals live in New Zealand, compared to only around 15,000 in the Cook Islands. Those who have lived in New Zealand continuously for at least one year are eligible to stand or vote in New Zealand elections and referendums.
Reports indicate that tensions between the two countries have increased over the issue of separate citizenship, with leaders from both sides holding a series of talks in recent months.
“New Zealanders are free to hold dual passports. There are a number of New Zealanders who hold passports from other countries,” Brown reported in November on Radio New Zealand.
“That’s exactly the same thing we’ll do,” he said.
However, some Cook Islands residents have criticized their government for the lack of consultation on the proposal.
Thomas Wynne, a Cook Islands national who works in Wellington, told local media outlet Cook Islands News: “The real question is what do Cook Islands people want and have they been consulted on this critical decision? Or will it be a decision? done by a few in the name of the many? »
Other Cook Islands residents told 1News they were concerned such a move could also affect access to services like their right to healthcare in New Zealand.
But on Sunday, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters effectively ended the conversation, announcing that a separate passport and citizenship were only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.
Any initiative aimed at changing current relations between the two countries will have to be subject to a referendum, he added.
“Such a referendum would allow Cook Islanders to carefully weigh whether they prefer the status quo, with their access to New Zealand citizenship and passports, or full independence,” he said in a statement to the media.
“If the Cook Islands government's goal is independence for New Zealand, then of course that is a conversation we are prepared to engage in.”
According to 1News, Brown then responded to Peters' statement by saying the Cook Islands would “not implement anything that affects our important status (with New Zealand).”
Another small Pacific island, Niue, also shares a similar relationship with New Zealand: it is internally autonomous but depends on Wellington for its defense and most foreign affairs.
Self-governing territories also exist elsewhere in the world, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Puerto Rico, which is subordinate to the United States in defense and foreign affairs.
