The Cook Islands want their own passport. New Zealand says no

New Zealand has rejected a proposal by the Cook Islands to introduce a separate passport for its citizens and allow them to retain New Zealand citizenship.

The Cook Islands, a self-governing island nation in the Pacific, are 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 Islanders to have their own passports “to recognize our own people”, but New Zealand has said that is not possible unless the Cook Islands become fully independent.

The documents first published on local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters allegedly showed that Brown has been pushing for months for a separate passport and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, as he hopes to maintain its relationship as a kingdom country. from New Zealand.

Reports say tensions between both countries have been rising over the issue, and leaders from both places have held a series of talks in recent months.

“New Zealanders are free to carry dual passports, there are a number of New Zealanders who have passports from other countries,” Brown said, as reported by Radio New Zealand.

“It’s exactly the same thing we will do,” he had said.

However, some Cook Islanders criticized their government for a lack of consultation on the proposal.

Thomas Wynne, a Cook Islands national working in Wellington, told Cook Islands News: “The real question is what the people of the Cook Islands want. Have they been consulted about this critical decision? Or will it be a decision ? done by a few in the name of many?”

Other Cook Islands residents told 1News they were concerned such a move would also affect access to services such as 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 are only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.

Any move to change the current relationship between the two countries would have to be put to a referendum, he added.

“Such a referendum would allow the people of the Cook Islands to carefully weigh up whether they prefer the status quo, with access to New Zealand citizenship and passports, or complete independence,” he said in a statement to the media.

“If the goal of the Cook Islands government is independence for New Zealand, then of course we are willing to start that conversation.”

According to 1News, Brown later responded to Peters’ statement by saying the Cook Islands “would not implement anything that affects our important status (with New Zealand).”

Almost 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: it is internally autonomous but dependent on Wellington for its defense and most of its foreign affairs.

Self-governing territories in other parts of 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.