By 2018, with the Queen in her 90s, and the position of "Head of the Commonwealth" not technically hereditary, talks as to whether or not Prince Charles or someone else should become the third person to hold it had been going on for some time. The London Declaration states that "The King as the symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth", whereby both republics and kingdoms that are not Commonwealth realms can recognise the monarch as Head of the Commonwealth without accepting the person as the country's head of state. However, though each Commonwealth realm's laws on royal titles and styles make "Head of the Commonwealth" part of the reigning monarch's full title, and Queen Elizabeth II declared in 1958, through the Letters Patent creating her son, Prince Charles, as Prince of Wales, that Charles and his heirs and successors shall be future Heads of the Commonwealth, there have been conflicting statements on how successors to the position of Head of the Commonwealth are chosen. The Commonwealth Secretariat asserts any successor will be chosen collectively by the Commonwealth heads of government. Commonwealth heads of government, such as the then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, had already referred to Prince Charles as "the future head of the Commonwealth", and in 2015 the then Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key said, "The title [of Head of the Commonwealth should just go with the Crown".