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NOUMEA, August 19, 2024 (RNZ PACIFIC) – A much-anticipated visit to New Caledonia by a delegation of senior Pacific leaders has been “postponed” by the local government of the French territory. New Zealand Pacific Radio clear.
Paris expressed its appreciation for a letter hand-delivered just ten days ago by France’s top diplomat in the region on behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron to the Chairman and Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Suva.
In July, forum leaders wrote to Macron asking him to send the forum’s ministerial committee to Noumea to gather information from both sides of the conflict ahead of the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Summit in Tonga next Monday. The crisis began on May 13.
The Pacific delegation, expected to depart this week, includes Pacific Islands Forum chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown and Fijian Prime Minister Sitiweni Rabuka.
However, pro-independence New Caledonia President Louis Mapou wants to postpone the visit “until a later date” because of disagreements between Paris and the local government over who will ultimately be in charge of the PIF delegation.
“The French government has decided to take sole control of the mission’s mission and objectives, as well as its future conclusions,” Roch Wamitan, president of the New Caledonian National Assembly, said in a statement on Sunday. Pacific Radio New Zealand.
“The French government wants to see the results of this visit and hopes that the delegation will condemn the violence in New Caledonia.”
When France’s permanent representative to the Pacific, Verochik Roger-Lacan, handed the letter to the forum on August 10, “she stressed that France should obviously organize the visit because it is its responsibility,” said Vamitan.
He said Roger-Lacan did not mention that New Caledonia was a full member of the Forum and that the request for the mission was made by President Mapu.
“We believe that the French government determined the purpose of this mission. We believe this is an unacceptable form of humiliation. Clearly, this way of operating is an anachronistic neo-colonial approach.
“What is even more unacceptable is that the three heads of state of Oceania were received by the High Commissioner of the French Republic.
“Our Oceanian homeland, the Pacific Islands Forum, cannot be treated with such contempt. That is why President Mapu refuses to endorse this backwards action by the administration against the Non-Self-Governing Territories.”
Wamitan said the Pacific Islands Forum was sending a delegation to one of its member states, and the French government was taking the opportunity to evade any responsibility for the current situation.
“President Mapou therefore believes that all the conditions for the successful completion of the mission have not yet been met, which is why, in the absence of any consideration and respect for the Government of New Caledonia, it would generally be wiser to postpone the mission to a later date.”
Roger Lacan said on Sunday that “France is ready to welcome such a mission.”
On the eve of the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) in Japan, Mark Brown met with Mapu twice via Zoom.
Discussions led to the idea of sending a special Pacific mission to Forum member State New Caledonia.
New Caledonia has been a full voting member of the Pacific Islands Forum since 2016. France is one of the Forum’s 21 dialogue partners.
Dr Tess Newton Cain, a Pacific researcher, said: “It makes sense for New Caledonia to join the EU because they are on the road to independence. Similarly, French Polynesia has been re-listed on the C24 (Special Committee on Decolonisation) list.”
At the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting, Pacific leaders announced that they wanted to send a high-level delegation to New Caledonia to investigate the political crisis ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting (to be held in Tonga in the last week of August).
Macron’s spokesman in New Caledonia, Roger Lacan, also attended PALM10 and met with some Pacific leaders outside the venue.
She told New Zealand’s Pacific Radio that Brown had not answered her calls and made it clear that France “decides who enters” New Caledonia.
Meanwhile, the Melenesian Spearhead Group (MSG) issued a scathing statement on the matter.
MSG Chairperson and Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlotte Salwai said New Zealand Pacific Radio He has long supported the independence of Melanesian countries.
“We are not only members and neighbors of PIF, we are a family,” Salwai said.
Following the Japan meeting, the Pacific Islands Forum wrote to Macron requesting that the Forum’s Committee of Ministers be sent to Noumea to gather information from all parties involved in the current crisis.
Then the waiting began – about a week passed without hearing from Paris, while the initial communication and request was between New Caledonia and the PIF.
The day before the final high-level meeting, two weeks before the leaders’ summit in Nuku’alofa, Roger Lacan arrived at the Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers’ meeting in Suva carrying a signed letter from Paris approving the delegation.
RNZ understands that because it was a forum-led mission and France was not involved, it was not welcomed by some ministers and leaders.
The Pacific Islands Forum is due to make a decision on its involvement in New Caledonia a week before its biggest annual meeting of Pacific leaders.
Fijian Prime Minister Rabuka spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron over the weekend.
The French ambassador to the Pacific issued a statement on the 10th, saying that the president’s office said the two leaders discussed the situation in New Caledonia on Saturday.
Roger Lacon said the Pacific delegation to New Caledonia was a “goodwill gesture in international relations”.
According to a statement from Macron’s office posted on X by Roger Lacan, “The French government stands ready, in conjunction with local authorities, to receive an information delegation when the conditions allow.”
RNZ Pacific is still waiting for confirmation of a date for the forum’s first visit.
We understand that the leaders of the Cook Islands and Fiji will arrive in New Caledonia this week for a visit from August 20 to 24… PACNEWS
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