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 Pacific island nation, are 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 has called for Cook Islanders to have their own passports “to recognize their own people” – but New Zealand has said that is not possible unless the Cook Islands become fully independent.
Documents, first released to local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters, reportedly show Brown has been pushing for months for separate passports and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, while hoping to preserve relations as a New Zealand country Zealand.
Reports say tensions between the two countries have escalated over the issue, with leaders in both places holding a series of talks over the past few months.
“New Zealanders are free to carry dual passports, there are a number of New Zealanders who hold passports of other countries,” Radio New Zealand reported Brown as saying.
“It's exactly the same thing we're going to do,” he had said.
However, some Cook Islanders criticized their government for the lack of consultation on the proposal.
Thomas Wynn, a Cook Islander who works in Wellington, told the local Cook Islands News: “The real question is what do the people of the Cook Islands want and are they being consulted on this critical decision? Or will it be a decision made by the few for the sake of the many?”
Other Cook Islanders told 1News they were worried the move would also affect 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, announcing that a separate passport and citizenship was only available to fully independent and sovereign nations.
Any move to change the current relationship between the two countries would have to be subject to a referendum, he added.
“Such a referendum would allow the people of the Cook Islands to carefully consider whether they prefer the status quo, with access to New Zealand citizenship and passports, or full independence,” he said in a statement to media.
“If the Cook Islands government's goal is independence from New Zealand, then of course that's a conversation we're open to them having.”
According to 1News, Brown later responded to Peters' statement by saying the Cook Islands “will not implement anything that affects our important status (with New Zealand)”.
Nearly 100,000 Cook Islanders 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 self-governing but relies on Wellington for defense and most foreign affairs.
Self-governing territories 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 US in defense and foreign affairs.