FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Team South Korea and Team Cook Islands wave their flags from a boat during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Lee Jin-man/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand has rejected a proposal by the Cook Islands, a self-governing nation in free association with the larger Pacific country, to allow the creation of its own passports and citizenship but said it could discuss independence.
A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement late Sunday that a separate passport, citizenship and membership of the United Nations are only available to fully independent and sovereign countries.
As such, the Cook Islands could access these things while it remains in free association with New Zealand and would need to become fully independent for it to do so, the spokesperson said.
"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," the spokesperson said. He added any decision on Cook Islands' future would be made by referendum.
The Cook Islands is a grouping of 15 islands and atolls in the South Pacific. It has a population of 15,000 and been a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand for nearly 60 years.
The democratically elected government controls domestic and international affairs but the population has New Zealand citizenship. According to New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand also has a constitutional obligation to respond to requests for assistance with foreign affairs, disasters and defence.
Nearly 100,000 people who identify as Cook Island Maori live in New Zealand currently.
In documents released first to broadcaster 1News, but seen by Reuters, Cook Island Prime Minister Mark Brown has been pushing for New Zealand to allow for the creation of the passport. Both New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Peters have said this is not possible.
"A Cook Islands passport would raise fundamental questions for our shared constitutional relationship and shared citizenship," Peters wrote in a letter to Brown in September 2024.
Brown had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing. However, he has previously said that he was looking to create a Cook Island passport.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sam Holmes)
