By Nic Maclellan
The French government is expanding its engagement with Pacific Island nations, following the fifth France-Oceania summit, a visit by President Emmanuel Macron to French Polynesia, and increased support by France and the European Union for the Pacific Community (SPC) and other regional organisations.
After a visit to New Caledonia in May 2018, President Macron pledged to also visit Tahiti, to reaffirm France’s presence in the Pacific and support the government of French Polynesia, led by President Edouard Fritch. However his proposed visit in April 2020, combined with plans for a France-Oceania summit with island leaders, was delayed by the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Macron finally made the trip between 24-28 July, after visiting the opening of the Tokyo Olympic games. His tour involved brief visits to Hiva Oa in the outlying Marquesas islands (a first for a French President), a stopover in the Tuamotu archipelago, as well as meetings and ceremonies in the capital Papeete.
The visit aimed to enhance the Macron administration’s domestic and international standing. Gearing up for the French Presidential elections next April, the trip was designed to showcase his popularity at a time of widespread political criticism and protest in France: there were plenty of babies kissed as he was greeted by crowds in Papeete. Another key element was to reaffirm France’s colonial presence in the Pacific, seeking closer alignment with the ANZUS allies as part of his wider Indo-Pacific policy.
Battling the pandemic
As Macron’s aircraft touched down at Faa’a international airport in Tahiti, a group of masked dignitaries stood on the tarmac, waiting to greet him. But before the French President could step out, a team of medical personnel boarded the plane to conduct COVID-19 tests on the 150-strong entourage.
From the airport, Macron was driven straight to Taaone hospital, to meet frontline health workers. Facing domestic criticism over mandatory requirements for vaccines, Macron said: “My message is simple: get vaccinated!”
Between August 2020 and January this year, French Polynesia had already suffered a major surge of COVID-19 cases. With just 280,000 people, the French dependency has one of the highest per capita rates of coronavirus infection in the Pacific: 39,117 cases and 311 deaths, as of 23 August 2021.
Macron’s strong call for action against COVID was undercut by the large crowds that welcomed the French leader. Every stroll through the street, every cultural performance, every gathering with politicians created a dangerous opportunity for the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the novel coronavirus. During his visit to the Tuamotu archipelago, Macron and his entourage – local dignitaries, journalists, security and police officers and general hangers on – all visited the isolated atoll of Manihi. Soon after, the nurse on Manihi reported the first ever case of COVID-19 amongst villagers.
Opposition politicians and community leaders have also condemned the lavish wedding for French Polynesia’s vice president Tearii Alpha, which was attended by President Fritch, his ministers and local dignitaries. Combined with the crowds that welcomed the French President, this breach of coronavirus restrictions by government leaders angered health officials, worried by so-called “super spreader” events that drive the pandemic.
As Macron arrived on 24 July, the 7-day average of Covid cases in French Polynesia was 29 cases a day. As he left on 28
July, the 7-day average was 63. Within days, however, there was a renewed surge of cases and by 23 August, the 7-day average had risen to 1,149 a day! In just one month, there were 19,481 new cases and 170 deaths.
On 11 August, the French Council of Ministers in Paris declared a state of emergency for French Polynesia. The French
High Commissioner in Papeete announced the reimposition of an overnight curfew and further measures to restrict mobility, in an attempt to contain further spread of the Delta variant.
Nuclear legacies
Another key issue on Macron’s agenda was to address local concerns over the health and environmental impacts of French nuclear testing. A range of church and community organisations had planned protests to remind the French President of the impacts of 193 nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1996.
To short-circuit this sensitive issue, the French government organised a roundtable on nuclear issues on 1-3 July. However this roundtable was held in Paris, not Papeete, to the anger of church and community organisations like Association 193 and Moruroa e Tatou (the association of former Maohi workers who staffed the nuclear test sites for three decades). Both groups joined opposition politicians and two of French Polynesia’s deputies in the French National Assembly, Moetai Brotherson and Nicole Sanquer, to boycott the meeting.
Independence leader Oscar Temaru, a long-time critic of French nuclear policy, told Islands Business the Paris roundtable was not a meeting of equals: “Since 1977, we have had an autonomy statute, but the real power lies in the hands of the French State. That’s why Paris is not the right place to talk about the problems we are facing in our country. The roundtable in Paris is in the hands of the King of France. That’s why I call this meeting in Paris a ‘vertical table’.”
Despite these boycotts, President Edouard Fritch led a Reko Tiko (“speaking the truth”) delegation to Paris, for discussions chaired by French health minister Olivier Véran, overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu and Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister of the Armed Forces in charge of Memory and Veterans.
Locals welcomed extra resources for the CIVEN commission, set up in 2010 to evaluate compensation claims from civilian and military personnel exposed to radiation. But the French Polynesian government also wants Paris to reimburse 80 billion CPF (about A$1 billion) already spent by the CPS Social Security Fund since 1985 for the care of cancer patients in Tahiti. In a report earlier this year, the French medical research agency INSERM called for a more comprehensive cancer register in Tahiti, and better documentation of cardiovascular and congenital abnormalities amongst French Polynesians.
In Tahiti, the main independence party Tavini Huiraatira was joined by church and community organisations to highlight the issue. Coordinated by a collective of groups under the banner “Maohi Lives Matter!”, there was an international roundtable on 1 July and two public protests on 2 July and 17 July. Nuclear survivors called for improved compensation and clean-up schemes and a formal apology for the health and environmental impacts of radioactive fallout.
During the French President’s visit, the warmth of the welcome from many people in Tahiti and Hiva Oa was enhanced by a ban on anti-nuclear protests. The night before Macron’s arrival, the French High Commissioner in Tahiti issued an official decree forbidding a scheduled protest rally at the airport in Faa’a (the municipality where Oscar Temaru is Mayor). The decree stated, “anyone violating this prohibition is liable to penal sanctions under R.610-5 of the penal code.”
In response to the ban, Temaru and Père Auguste Uebe Carlson of Association 193 still led a small group of protestors at a vigil on private property near the airport. “We are really in a State that cannot be qualified as a democracy,” Carlson said. “No demonstrations are allowed during the President’s visit, to give a good image. But we will adapt. One thing is certain, they will not be able to put a policeman, a gendarme behind every demonstrator.”
In his final speech in Tahiti, President Macron pledged to open up access to the archives on France’s nuclear testing program. However the recent roundtable only agreed to set up a working group in Paris (with one Polynesian representative), to develop a process to review access to files kept hidden under national security laws. Historians and medical researchers are concerned they’ll wait a long time for full access.
The final disappointment for many nuclear survivors was the absence of one word in Macron’s final speech: “sorry.” France’s refusal to fully apologise for the legacies of the nuclear tests still rankles with many Maohi and undercuts the success of the visit.
Indo-Pacific strategy
The French government is currently seeking greater strategic alignment with the four members of the Quad (United States, Japan, Australia, India), to counter Chinese influence in region. France’s Pacific dependencies are pillars in Macron’s “India-Australia-France” axis, announced in New Caledonia in May 2018.
Extending the FRANZ Treaty, alongside Australia’s Pacific Patrol Boat Program and new US pledges of coast guard cutters, Macron announced that France will launch a South Pacific coast guard network to respond to IUU fishing and counter “predatory” (i.e. Chinese) behaviour in the region.
During his visit to French Polynesia, Macron put the kibosh on proposals for a long-delayed Chinese fish farming project on Hao atoll. The French Polynesian government had long sought jobs and investment on Hao after the closure of France’s nuclear-era military base on the island. President Fritch welcomed investment plans from the Chinese company Tahiti Nui Océan Foods, even honouring CEO Wang Cheng with the status of Commandeur dans l’ordre de Tahiti nui. However the Chinese investment never came through and Macron said, “this project has no documented job creation, has questionable investors and has been the subject of a lot of reservations about the nature of its funding.”
Macron’s focus on Indo-Pacific strategy is also evident with increased support for member agencies of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP). Last January, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signed a multi-year, multi-million euro partnership between France and the Pacific Community (SPC). French funds will boost programs on public health, climate change, ocean resources, and sustainable management of natural resources and food systems.
At the online France-Oceania summit on 19 July, Macron pledged new resources for the region: “We are going to double the French contribution to the Pacific Fund, rising to €3 million, which promotes the integration of French Pacific authorities into their regional environment.” France will also increase funding through the Agence française de développement (AFD). He pledged up to €5 million for the IUCN/SPC Kiwa Initiative, which promotes nature-based solutions to strengthen ecosystem resilience in the Pacific.
As the only European Union (EU) member state with colonies in the Pacific, France is also leveraging its relationship with SPC through EU funding. On 1 August, the SPC welcomed the EU as the first Permanent Observer in the history of the region’s key technical agency.
Community groups are concerned that the privileged position of France and the European Union within some CROP agencies will affect policy development on contested environmental issues such as deep sea mining, fisheries and nuclear contaminants. As one example, the CROP agencies have established a Nuclear Legacy Task Force, but only Marshall Islands and Kiribati are on its agenda, not French Polynesia. This ignores the radioactive pollution at France’s nuclear test sites and 2,850 tonnes of contaminated debris dumped into the Pacific off Moruroa atoll. As the saying goes, “If it’s safe, test it in Paris….”
