The whirlwind tour of Melanesia by French President Emmanuel Macron received widespread media acclaim in July, as he visited the French Pacific dependency of New Caledonia and made unprecedented stopovers in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
But despite the warm welcome from supporters in Noumea, Port Vila and Port Moresby, the tour highlighted the many contradictions of France’s colonial role in the region.
The French leader signed a series of bilateral agreements on climate change, development assistance and resource exploitation, and announced new military deployments to New Caledonia. Warning that “in the Indo-Pacific and particularly in Oceania, there is a new imperialism appearing and a power logic that threatens the sovereignty of several states,” he claimed that France serves as an “alternative” Indo-Pacific power at a time of heightened US-China competition.
Macron’s visit to New Caledonia hasn’t improved the attitude of key Kanak leaders, still angered by France’s decision to rush through the December 2021 referendum on self-determination. His warning about “new imperialism” rang hollow to indigenous communities still dealing with the old imperialism, as France maintains its colonial administration of three Pacific dependencies well into the 21st Century.
Daniel Goa, president of the largest independence party Union Calédonienne (UC), told his party executive on 29 July: “I reaffirm it and I say it forcefully, New Caledonia is not and never will be French land, it is only a land occupied by France. During Macron’s stay, he worked to divide and aggravate the fracture he’s caused since 12 December 2021, vis-à-vis the question of independence.”
The UC leader criticised the President’s “imperialist and condescending attitude” and said the tour was a “non-event,” despite crowds that welcomed him in central Noumea: “He did not bring us all together, given that we were not there. He did not say a word about the 57 per cent of the New Caledonian population who did not turn out to vote on 12 December 2021.”
Questions in New Caledonia
Macron had a busy two-day schedule in New Caledonia, with a military ceremony and wreath laying in Place Bir Hakeim, a cultural ceremony at the Kanak Customary Senate and a meeting with young people at the Tjibaou Cultural Centre. A centrepiece of the tour was a roundtable with New Caledonian political leaders at the French High Commission, followed by a major speech in Noumea’s central square, the Place des Cocotiers.
As independence supporters rallied on the outskirts of central Noumea, the city’s main square was a sea of bleu-blanc-rouge French tricolours, as thousands gathered to hear Macron’s speech on New Caledonia’s political future. After three referendums on self-determination in 2018-2021, he stressed: “New Caledonia is French because it chose to remain French.”
During Macron’s visit to the Kanak Customary Senate and his High Commission roundtable, only journalists from Paris were allowed in the press pool. New Caledonian journalists were left on the street outside, angered that photo opportunities were directed more towards Paris, to bolster Macron’s dire standing in French public opinion polls. The phalanx of officials surrounding the President may have been worried that local journalists would notice the boycott of his roundtable by key FLNKS leaders, including the President of New Caledonia’s Congress, Roch Wamytan.
“He didn’t come for us, he came for France,” Wamytan told Islands Business. “He came to tell the French people that there’s nothing to worry about in New Caledonia and that New Caledonia remains French. This wasn’t for the region – it was for him. He wants New Caledonia to be part of his Indo-Pacific axis, without understanding that we are already part of the Melanesian axis.”
“Our Kanak people are really angry after his visit, angry at him,” Wamytan added. “In his speech, Macron said that he was ‘personally hurt’ that we didn’t attend his meeting. But he has personally wounded thousands of Kanak, through the stolen referendum on 12 December 2021, which has created a barrier that makes it difficult to work with him.”
Debates over New Caledonia’s status
In Noumea, Macron said a new political statute should replace the 1998 Noumea Accord. He called for tripartite negotiations in Paris in September, to forge an agreement on electoral rolls for New Caledonia’s provincial assemblies and Congress (the next local elections are due in May 2024).
However the Noumea Accord is embedded in the French Constitution. In order to change the electoral rolls to add more voters before May, Macron must convene both houses of the French parliament in early 2024 to amend the constitution. He stressed “there will have to be a change in the Constitution and this change will be held.”
Despite this pledge, his timetable is already under pressure. Last month, a report from the French Senate Legal Commission warned the French government that it should not rush to reform the constitution and introduce new electoral rolls, without prior agreement between both supporters and opponents of independence in New Caledonia.
“This status cannot be ratified by legislative, organic or even constitutional provisions without having been preceded by an agreement,” their report confirmed. “Otherwise, the polls could not take place under conditions that were both fair and acceptable to all parties.”
Roch Wamytan is a chief FLNKS negotiator in the current dialogue with the French State. The veteran UC politician said: “The Senators have already reported that there must be a compromise agreement in New Caledonia, before there is any constitutional change in France. It’s complicated for him.”
As Islands Business went to press, the FLNKS delegation were still planning to join the next round of talks in Paris, but not engage in trilateral negotiations until long-standing concerns are addressed.
“At this stage, we will go to Paris in September, but only to continue the bilateral talks,” Wamytan said. “At this time, we’re not considering the need for trilateral talks with the others [anti-independence parties], who are completely aligned with the French State. Before us, there are still questions that the French State must address, like the place of Kanak identity, the impact of colonisation and reparations.”
Wamytan added: “We have no problem talking with our local partners about things that affect the people of New Caledonia, on the nickel industry, the economy, health and so on. But there are issues that only the French State, the administering colonial power, can address. On issues affecting the Kanak people, there is no use talking with the others. It is not just that they don’t understand, it’s that they don’t want to understand.”
Cultural clashes
Last November, meeting PNG Prime Minister James Marape in Bangkok, Macron said: “France is close to Papua New Guinea, due to its geographical proximity to New Caledonia. However we share much more: a Melanesian culture and common projects regarding energy transition and biodiversity protection.”
Showcasing his Melanesian culture (!) in Port Vila last month, Macron began his speech with a few sentences in Bislama, words warmly welcomed by the audience. But repeatedly saying that France is a Pacific country doesn’t make it so. For many people across Melanesia, France is a European colonial power. It’s still listed by the UN General Assembly as an administering power of non-self-governing territories. Despite the welcoming crowds during his unprecedented visit to independent Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, there are many unresolved colonial disputes that still rankle.
In Port Vila, for example, kastom chiefs and MPs called on President Macron to negotiate on the contested maritime boundary between Vanuatu and New Caledonia. MP for Tanna Johnny Koanapo said: “President Macron should declare that Matthew and Hunter are an integral part of Vanuatu and therefore should direct that processes are done by the two countries to finalise the delimitation of our maritime boundaries.”
France’s claim over Umaenupne (Matthew) and Umaeneag (Hunter) islands – and the EEZ around them – is also rejected by indigenous leaders from New Caledonia. In 2009, the FLNKS and members of the Kanak Customary Senate joined the Vanuatu government to sign the Keamu Accord, which recognises Vanuatu’s historic claim over the islands.
Climate action
Throughout his tour, President Macron highlighted the importance of climate action. In New Caledonia, he visited Tiouandé tribe near Touho to look at coastal erosion; in Vanuatu, he signed the Ifira Call for Climate Action Now; while the PNG stopover included talks with the Marape government on forestry and biodiversity, issuing a Joint Statement on Forests, Nature and Climate.
In Papua New Guinea, there was a photo opportunity as President Macron and Prime Minister Marape strolled through a forest, before signing a partnership agreement to “remunerate” the host nation for its efforts to preserve the primary forest. For PNG environment and community organisations, however, these pledges appeared to be greenwashing, generating carbon credits to allow French fossil fuel corporations to continue polluting.
On the same day as his forest walk, Macron attended a function with executives of TotalEnergies, the French corporation that has interests in several deep-sea offshore exploration licences, as Papua New Guinea seeks to develop its extensive oil and gas reserves. TotalEnergies also holds 40.1 per cent interest in Papua LNG, alongside joint venture partners ExxonMobil and Santos, as Western powers compete with China for infrastructure and resource contracts in the Melanesian nation.
Peter Bosip, Executive Director of PNG’s Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) said: “French corporation TotalEnergies is putting our global climate in jeopardy through its many fossil fuel projects, including Papua LNG. If President Macron is serious about his biodiversity and climate commitments, this means France supporting real climate justice and sustainable development. It does not mean standing by, as one of its companies tries to exploit polluting fossil gas in Papua New Guinea, while at the same time engaged in carbon sequestration projects, such as reafforestation, as a climate solution.”
Regional networking
Paris is eager to extend its diplomatic and security relations with members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and Pacific Islands Forum. As President Macron travelled to Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna made a short visit to Suva on 25 July, meeting the Fiji government and Forum Secretariat. Macron announced that France would open a new embassy in Apia, extending diplomatic outreach beyond existing missions in Port Vila, Port Moresby and Suva.
For his trip to Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, Macron was accompanied by Presidents Louis Mapou of New Caledonia and Moetai Brotherson of French Polynesia. At a time the FLNKS is calling for a transition to an independent and sovereign nation, and French Polynesians want action on long-standing claims for compensation and cleanup of nuclear contamination, both island leaders are seeking to build closer ties with neighbouring countries. As full members of the Forum, they’re also engaging directly with other powers in the region, from the United States to Australia, New Zealand and Korea.
At this year’s Forum in Cook Islands, the unprecedented presence of two pro-independence francophone politicians in the leaders’ retreat will change the dynamic of regional politics. Both Mapou and Brotherson want to engage with the Forum’s 2050 Strategy on climate, oceans and development, much more than represent France’s geopolitical interests as a military power in the Asia-Pacific region.
Military build up
In his first regional trip in May 2018, Macron spoke of an “India-Australia-France axis”, with New Caledonia as the pivot. On this visit, Macron said: “For a little more than five years, France has adopted an Indo-Pacific Strategy and a renewed, strengthened and revitalised presence, especially in the Pacific islands.”
France has begun to send military assets from Europe to tour the region each year. Operation Jeanne d’Arc sends out naval vessels, while Operation Pegasus sees the deployment of Rafale jet fighters to join wargames with Western allies (two of these military aircraft featured in a series of flyovers and photo opportunities during Macron’s New Caledonia visit).
Despite this, the small number of French aircraft and warships actually based in the Pacific are ageing and lack firepower. While military forces in the region play a valuable role in humanitarian and disaster relief under the FRANZ treaty, they are largely irrelevant to any conflict with China, hampered by distance, ageing technology and limited budgets.
Many French defence analysts are critical that annual deployments from France are theatre, rather than a significant contribution to Western efforts to contain Chinese military power on the other side of the world. Researcher Stephane Audrand tweeted: “Yes, projecting 10 Rafale into the Indo-Pacific is a nice tour de force, but no, it does not make us a ‘power that counts in the region.’ By definition, this kind of operation is just what it is: a raid, carried out by a micro force. Such a raid takes a long time to organise, to plan, to achieve and necessarily a long time to repeat. This is the reality of France in the Indo-Pacific.”
Much of this theatre is geared to the competition with the United States to sell armaments to developing countries. A fortnight before his trip to Melanesia, Macron invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France, as guest of honour for Bastille Day on 14 July. Amongst a range of geopolitical issues, the two leaders discussed the planned sale of 26 French Rafale fighters to New Delhi.
In Noumea, President Macron pledged another 200 troops and 18 billion Pacific francs for military investment in New Caledonia. But local independence leaders remain wary of being drawn into France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. For all the accolades he garnered in three Melanesian capitals, the President of the French Republic still faces significant challenges to address the contradictions of colonial rule in the Pacific.
