President Louis Mapou and the Government of New Caledonia has met with a visiting mission of Pacific Islands Forum leaders, with the Kanak politician noting “New Caledonia is at a turning point in its evolution, and the political, economic and social system that’s existed for many years has reached its end.”
The French Pacific dependency has been wracked by conflict since 13 May, with 13 deaths, more than 2600 arrests and extensive damage to private businesses and public infrastructure.
In response, the Pacific Islands Forum has deployed a mission to meet with government, business and community leaders, in a three-day visit from Sunday. The mission is led by Forum Chair Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, the Prime Minister of Tonga, joined by Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, Solomon Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter-Shanel Agovaka and backed by Forum Secretary General Baron Waqa and secretariat staff.
Greeting the delegation at government offices in the capital Noumea, President Mapou said: “It’s a mission that the Government of New Caledonia requested, because New Caledonia is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum.”
After the adoption of the 1998 Noumea Accord – a framework agreement that has governed New Caledonia for more than a quarter of a century – New Caledonia established new political institutions, including three provincial assemblies, a national Congress, and a customary Kanak Customary Senate to advise government on matters related to indigenous culture, identity and land.
Since then, New Caledonia’s 11-member executive government is based on representation from the main parliamentary groups in the 54-member Congress. Elected to the presidency in 2021, Louis Mapou is the first pro-independence Kanak president in more than 40 years. His sometimes-fractious government is a multi-party collegial structure, where pro-independence politicians serve alongside their conservative opponents.
Speaking after the meeting with Forum leaders on 28 October, Mapou said: “They noted they weren’t here to interfere in New Caledonia’s affairs, but rather because a member of their family is in difficulty – so it’s quite normal that the Forum would visit and say they’re ready to contribute to the de-escalation of conflict.”
“The fact the mission is welcomed by everyone is very positive, because New Caledonia must ensure the region understands the challenges we’re living through,” he said. “The situation in New Caledonia has been closely observed, above all in the Melanesian region, since the conflict erupted.”
New Caledonia’s independence coalition Front de Libération Nationale Kanak and Socialiste (FLNKS) is a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), alongside Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu. Since the 1980s, the MSG has long supported the right to self-determination in New Caledonia. After 2016, however, the Government of New Caledonia gained the status of a full member of the Pacific Islands Forum, and has attended annual Forum leaders’ meetings each year since then under successive governments.
In the meeting on Monday morning, Mapou was joined by other members of the government, including Adolphe Digoué, Gilbert Tyuienon, Laurie Humuni, Yoann Lecourieux and Christopher Gygès, for an exchange of views with the visiting Prime Ministers and Forum Secretary General.
The dialogue, Mapou said, gave the visiting leaders of independent nations a chance to share their own perspectives on regional concerns: “With the members of my government, they freely shared their own experience of regionalism: the Cook Islands, which is in free association with New Zealand; Tonga, which is a country that was never colonised; the Solomon Islands, which has suffered through inter-ethnic conflict, and where young people are mobilised; then finally Fiji, which acceded to independence, later withdrew from the Commonwealth, but is again discussing the future.”
“They said that they weren’t here to interfere in New Caledonia’s affairs, but rather because a member of their family is in difficulty – so it’s quite normal that the Forum would visit and say they are ready to contribute to the de-escalation of conflict,” Mapou explained.
After months of clashes between Kanak protestors and the 6,000 security forces deployed in New Caledonia, Forum leaders have repeatedly called for an end to violence since 13 May. However Mapou noted that “the Fiji Prime Minister said de-escalation is not enough. Next you need détente, and finally reconciliation. This is someone who has had a military career, stressing that de-escalation of conflict is not enough – you must go much further.”
As the conflict erupted last May, President Mapou met with diplomats based in Noumea – from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Vanuatu and the European Union – to discuss possible assistance for economic and social reconstruction.
Last month, the Congress of New Caledonia passed bipartisan legislation seeking financial support from Paris, calling for 4.2 billion euros investment over five years. The Mapou government has also developed a more detailed plan for stability, reconstruction and rebuilding, dubbed the “Plan de Sauvegarde, de Reconstruction et de Refondation” (PS2R).
As the Forum leaders met with the local government, Mapou said “they confirmed they are willing to contribute to reconstruction – and the best way this can happen is the integration of New Caledonia within the region.”
“New Caledonia often knows little about its region because we have an affiliation with Europe and with France,” he said. “So in a certain way, we’re discovering our region and maybe the Pacific Islands Forum could possibly be the lever for this. The Forum has a wide range of tools, of levers, of resources that could assist.”
Under the Noumea Accord, foreign affairs is a shared power between the French State and the Government of New Caledonia, but the Pacific dependency’s colonial status still restrains some independent partnerships with neighbouring countries.
“I raised with them some of the obstacles and constraints, which are directly related to our political status – we aren’t an independent state that has the freedom to work on many of these issues that we must all address in the future,” Mapou said. “Members of my government, for example, raised with the delegation that we have a trade agreement with Vanuatu, but we have been unable to bring it to fruition for more than two years.”
The Forum mission continues until Tuesday 29 October, with the delegation of island leaders scheduled to meet with church, women’s and religious leaders, before flying out that afternoon.