Cook Islands wants its own passport. new zealand says no
New Zealand has rejected a proposal from the Cook Islands to introduce a separate passport for its citizens, allowing them to retain New Zealand citizenship.
The Cook Islands, a self-governing island Pacific nation, 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 healthcare in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Mark Brown has asked Cook Islanders to have their own passports “to recognize our own people” – but New Zealand has said this is not possible until the Cook Islands become fully independent. Go.
Documents reportedly released to local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters show that Brown has for months been pushing for a separate passport and citizenship for Cook Islands people, despite New Zealand’s status as a de facto country. I am looking forward to maintaining our relationship.
Reports say tensions are rising between the two countries over the issue, with leaders from both places having held talks several times in the past few months.
“New Zealanders are free to carry dual passports, there are many New Zealanders who hold passports from other countries,” Radio New Zealand quoted Brown as saying.
He said, “This is exactly the thing we would do.”
However some Cook Islanders criticized their government for the lack of consultation on the proposal.
Thomas Wynne, a Cook Islands citizen 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 important decision? Or is this a Will the decision be made by the few on behalf of the many?”
Other Cook Islands residents told 1News they were concerned such a move would also affect access to services in New Zealand, such as their right to healthcare.
But on Sunday New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters effectively ended talks by announcing that a separate passport and citizenship is only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.
He said that any step to change the existing relationship between the two countries would have to be brought through a referendum.
“Such a referendum would allow the people of the Cook Islands to carefully consider whether they prefer the status quo, their access to New Zealand citizenship and passport, or full independence,” he said in a statement to media outlets.
“If the goal of the Cook Islands government is independence from New Zealand, then certainly that is a conversation we are willing to start.”
According to 1News, Brown later responded to Peters’ statement by saying that the Cook Islands “will not implement anything that impacts our important position (with New Zealand)”.
About 100,000 Cook Islands citizens live in New Zealand, while only about 15,000 live in the Cook Islands.
Another small Pacific island, Niue, also shares similar relations with New Zealand – it is internally self-governing but dependent on Wellington for defense and most foreign affairs.
Self-governing territories elsewhere in the world include Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Puerto Rico, which is subject to the US in defense and foreign affairs.
