Page 14 - IB April 2023

New Caledonia New Caledonia

Alcide Ponga, Louis Mapou Magalie Tingal-Leme, FLNKS rep to UN
Rassemblement President

Gerald Darmanin, French Overseas Pierre Chanel Tutugoro Roch Wamytan, President of Congress
Minister

WHAT NEXT FOR NEW CALEDONIA?

25 YEARS AFTER THE NOUMEA ACCORD

By Nic Maclellan independence party now divided into several smaller loyalist
groups).
Twenty-five years ago, the French government joined sup- The Noumea Accord created new political institutions,
porters and opponents of independence in New Caledonia to including three provincial Assemblies, a Congress, a Custom-
adopt the Noumea Accord – a political agreement that mapped ary Senate for the indigenous Kanak people and a multi-party
out a transition towards a new political status for the French government. The framework agreement, now entrenched in
Pacific dependency. the French Constitution, also involved significant measures
The agreement was signed on 5 May 1998 by representa- of economic and social rebalancing, to address decades of
tives of the French state, the independence movement Front disadvantage in rural and regional areas where the population
de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) and the is majority Kanak.
Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (an anti- Crucially, it delayed decisions on New Caledonia’s final

14 Islands Business, April 2023