Cook Islands wants its own passport. New Zealand says no

New Zealand has rejected a proposal by the Cook Islands to introduce its own passport while retaining New Zealand citizenship.

The Cook Islands, a self-governing island nation in the Pacific, is home to around 15,000 people.

Prime Minister Mark Brown had asked for Cook Islanders to have their own passports "to recognise our own people" - something that New Zealand has said is not possible unless the Cook Islands becomes fully independent.

Currently, its citizens are allowed to live, work and access healthcare services in New Zealand.

Documents first released to local broadcaster 1News and seen by Reuters reportedly showed that Brown has for months been pushing for a seperate passport and citizenship for those in the Cook Islands, while hoping to maintain its relationship as a realm country of New Zealand.

Reports say tensions between both countries have been escalating over the issue, with leaders of 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 have their passports of other countries," Radio New Zealand reported Brown saying.

"It is precisely the same thing that we'll be doing," he had said.

However some Cook Islanders had 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]".

Nearly 100,000 Cook Islands nationals live in New Zealand, while only about 15,000 live in 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 defence 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 subordinated to the US in defence and foreign affairs.