French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls will return to New Caledonia for further political talks one week later than originally planned, local media report.
After an initial one-week visit to New Caledonia, which ended on 01 March, Valls said he was planning to come back for more political talks sometime around 22 March.
However, the revised plan now mentions a four-day visit between 29 March and 01 April.
In the meantime, the former French Prime minister also had to travel to La Réunion Island (in the Indian Ocean) and is currently visiting the French Caribbean overseas territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Valls managed to get all political stakeholders around the same table for talks on the French Pacific territory’s institutional and future status during his first New Caledonia visit earlier this month.
He left behind a public “synthesis” document summing up both pro-France and pro-independence camps’ often radically antagonistic views.
Both camps have also since clearly stated that the talks, so far, could only be described as “discussions”, not negotiations, per se that could come at a later stage.
In an interview with French media outlets BFMTV and RMC last week, he said he did not believe the situation in New Caledonia had been appeased.
“It is still tense because there’s been a lot of violence (since the May 2024 insurrectional riots), a lot of fear, a lot of racism, and people who no longer speak to each other.”
“I will continue to work with a lot of humility,” he said, adding, “because even if we managed to bring together all political forces so they can speak to each other again, we are still far from an agreement.”
“One has to understand the fear all of our compatriots over there, and especially those of European origin, have gone through. And to understand also the Kanaks’ aspiration to emancipation and decolonisation.
“So these are two logics that are still ongoing and now we have to ensure that through dialogue, a political agreement can emerge from this,” he added.
Meanwhile, France’s Nouméa-based Ambassador for the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan made her first official visit to New Caledonia’s closest neighbour, Vanuatu, over the weekend.
As part of a wide range of calls, she met the country’s newly appointed Prime Minister Jotham Napat and discussed a proposed free trade agreement with New Caledonia.
With Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu, the talks focused on climate change-related topics, including the French-hosted 3rd UN Oceans Conference (UNOC3) to be held in Nice in June 2025.
“We discussed numerous issues concerning the Pacific Ocean: the fight against deep sea mining, waste management, innovation in the fight against climate change,” Roger-Lacan wrote on social networks.
She also held meetings with the heads of key diplomatic missions represented in Port Vila (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand) on “shared regional issues”.
Just like France, all of these missions had their offices destroyed as a result of the December 2024 earthquake in the capital Port Vila.
She also visited a number of French-funded projects and institutions, such as the Vanuatu National Museum, the National Council of Chiefs (Malvatumauri), and its recently rebuilt Chiefs’ Nakamal (the previous one was destroyed by fire), and the National University of Vanuatu (NUV).
In Vanuatu, France also supports French language-related educational and cultural projects.
The former French-British condominium (which became independent in 1980) retains French as one of its three official languages (with English and local pidgin bislama), and is a member of both the Commonwealth and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF, international organisation of French-speaking countries).
During the visit, the French diplomat also met representatives of the 2000-strong French community in Vanuatu, including business, cultural and educational leaders, at functions hosted by her Vanuatu-based counterpart Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer.
She was also introduced to a drinking session of Vanuatu’s kava.
Roger-Lacan took up her position as French Ambassador to the Pacific in October 2023.
Her job description includes working towards better integrating France’s three Pacific territories (New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia) in their “natural Pacific environment”..
