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.
Cook Islands, a self-governing Pacific nation, is in “free association” with New Zealand, which is responsible for the former’s foreign affairs and defence.
Cook Islanders can also live, work and access healthcare in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Mark Brown had asked for Cook Islanders to have their own passports “to recognise our own people” – but New Zealand has said that is not possible unless the Cook Islands becomes fully independent.
Documents first released to local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters reportedly showed that for months Brown has been pushing for a separate passport and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, while hoping to maintain its relationship as a realm country of New Zealand.
Nearly 100,000 Cook Islands nationals live in New Zealand, while only about 15,000 live on the Cook Islands. Those who have lived in New Zealand continuously for at least one year can contest or vote in New Zealand’s elections and referendums.
Reports say tensions between both countries have been escalating over the issue of separate citizenship, with leaders on both sides holding a series of talks in recent months.
“New Zealanders are free to carry dual passports, there are a number of New Zealanders who have their passports of other countries,” Radio New Zealand reported Brown saying in November.
“It is precisely the same thing that we’ll be doing,” he said.
However some Cook Islanders criticised their government for a lack of consultation over the proposal.
Thomas Wynne, a Cook Island national 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 made by the few on behalf of the many?”
Other Cook Island residents told 1News that they were worried that such a move would also affect access to services like their right to healthcare in New Zealand.
But on Sunday, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters effectively brought the conversation to an end, announcing that a separate passport and citizenship is only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.
Any move to change the current relationship between the two countries would have to be put through a referendum, he added.
“Such a referendum would allow the Cook Islands people to carefully weigh up whether they prefer the status quo, with their access to New Zealand citizenship and passports, or full independence,” he said in a statement to media outlets.
“If the goal of the government of the Cook Islands is independence from New Zealand, then of course that’s a conversation we are ready for them to initiate.”
According to 1News, Brown later responded to Peters’ statement by saying the Cook Islands would “not be implementing 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 self-governing but relies on Wellington for defence 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 subordinated to the US in defence and foreign affairs.