The Pacific Islands Forum is sending a high-level delegation to New Caledonia to investigate the current political crisis in the French Territory before the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga next month.
Forum Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown confirmed this during an interview with journalists in Tokyo after the conclusion of the PALM10 meeting on Thursday.
“That’s a work in progress. There has been a request from the government of New Caledonia for a high-level Pacific delegation. We will now go through the process of how we will put this into practice. Of course, it will require the support of the Government of France in order for the mission to proceed,” Brown said.
“We just received a letter from New Caledonia and will now formulate a response, which will require support from France.”
The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) voiced strong objections to France’s handling of the political situation in Kanaky New Caledonia this week.
Brown said the Forum shares similar concerns.
“We do have similar concerns. In fact, the third referendum was boycotted by the Kanak population because of the impacts of COVID and the respect for the mourning period. Therefore, the outcome of that particular referendum is not really valuable,” he said.
Fiji’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, announced he will lead the Forum’s fact-finding mission in New Caledonia.
“I have also been asked by many Pacific leaders to lead a group to conduct a fact-finding mission in Noumea to understand the problems they are facing.
Additionally, I will accompany Prime Minister James Marape to visit the President of Indonesia to discuss further actions regarding the people of West Papua,” Rabuka said during a talanoa session with the Fijian diaspora in Tokyo.
The riots began in New Caledonia last month after lawmakers in Paris approved a constitutional amendment to allow recent arrivals to the territory to vote in provincial elections, a decision – since put on ice by French President Emnnauel Macron – that the indigenous Kanak population feared would further dilute their own influence. Kanaks make up about 40 percent of New Caledonia’s population.
