High level mission to New Caledonia 'strictly observational': Pacific Islands Forum

A high-level Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) mission to New Caledonia scheduled to begin on Sunday is described as "strictly observational".

The PIF "troika plus" Mission to New Caledonia will take place from Sunday 27 to Tuesday 29 October, the PIF said in a release on Friday.

The dates had been revealed earlier this week by New Caledonia's President Louis Mapou, who requested the regional organisation visit after riots erupted in the French Pacific territory on 13 May.

But the mission, initially scheduled to take place before the Pacific Islands Forum annual leaders' summit in Nuku'alofa in August, was postponed, due to what has been described as differences between New Caledonia's government and its administrative power, France.

In a release, confirming the arrival of the Forum troika mission on Friday, the regional organisation stresses the mission is "strictly observational, in line with the request of the New Caledonia government and will follow the terms of reference, agreed by the French State, the government of New Caledonia and endorsed by the Forum Leaders."

The "troika plus" format will involve a total of three Pacific heads of governments, including mission leader Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni (PIF chair and Tonga Prime Minister), as well as Mark Brown (Cook Islands Prime Minister) and Sitiveni Rabuka (Fiji Prime Minister).

They will be joined by Peter-Shanel Agovaka, the Solomon Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, in place of Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele.

"The Forum Leaders will be supported by Secretary General, Baron Waqa, and senior officials with the guidance of the French State and New Caledonia government", the Forum said.

"They will tour Nouméa and visit with stakeholders impacted by the recent unrest.

"These include New Caledonian political parties, youth, and the impacted communities and dialogues with the private, health, and education sectors."

"This mission to New Caledonia comes at a pivotal time, as it navigates complex political dynamics and seeks to address ongoing social and economic challenges in New Caledonia.

By understanding local perspectives, the Forum can better support ongoing dialogue about New Caledonia's future, all while respecting its current status."

In August, Forum leaders, in their final communiqué on 30 August 2024, mentioned the issue of New Caledonia in two paragraphs, saying that "(59) Leaders noted the update on the situation in New Caledonia by the President of the Government of New Caledonia, Louis Mapou, and reaffirmed their continued call for order and stability to prevail as well as their continued commitment to provide support as necessary to New Caledonia" and that "(60) leaders reaffirmed the commitment to deploy the high-level Forum Troika Plus mission to New Caledonia in line with the request of New Caledonia's government and noted the agreement of the French State and the Government of New Caledonia on the Terms of Reference for the Forum Troika Mission."

'Not easy to understand what exactly happened' - French Ambassador

Nouméa-based French Ambassador for the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan, in an interview on Friday with Radio Rythme Bleu, elaborated on the much-awaited mission , where a team of Forum high officials are already there on the ground to fine-tune and prepare the leaders' visit.

"As agreed in the terms of reference, during negotiations between the French State, the government of New Caledonia and the Forum, the main aim of their mission is information gathering," she said.

"So they will meet representatives of the French State, representatives of New Caledonia's government, representatives of all political groups, both loyalists (pro-France) and pro-independence, representatives from the economic sector, medical sector, education sector, religious bodies, civil society, including women, students, children.

"This is for them to better understand what happened on 13 May...because from an outside point of view, it's not easy to understand what exactly happened".

"This is also to ensure that not only one side is represented and then shared and disseminated in the region and beyond," she said.

Roger -Lacan said France is defending the principle of multilateralism and had "no reason to refuse such visit".

She said initially, the idea of the PIF troika visiting New Caledonia, was for PIF leaders to call for a de-escalation of the situation and appeal for dialogue.

"Since then, the situation in New Caledonia has largely appeased. Then there was the new French Prime minister (Michel Barnier) who mentioned New Caledonia in an important part of his speech of general policy which also seems to have appeased."

Last week, newly-appointed French minister for Overseas François-Noël Buffet spent four days in New Caledonia in what was his first official trip to also get a first-hand assessment of the situation.

He again called for a resumption of political dialogue and trying to reassure on France's financial commitments, including on the issue the right to self-determination.

This week, the postponement was endorsed by New Caledonia's Congress as well as the French Senate.

The other House of French Parliament, the National Assembly, is scheduled to endorse the change of dates on 6 November.

Scheduled provincial elections, initially mid-May, then mid-December 2024, have now been pushed back to the end of November 2025, to give local leaders more time to sit at the table are arrive at a "comprehensive and inclusive" agreement supposed to eventually replace the 36-year-old Nouméa autonomy Agreement signed in 1998.

'Concertation and dialogue' mission

Dates for another high-level French visit have been confirmed in Paris: The Presidents of both Houses of Parliament (Senate and National Assembly), respectively Gérard Larcher and Yaël Braun-Pivet, will also travel to New Caledonia from 9 to 14 November.

They will lead what is described as a "mission of concertation and dialogue".

The dates come as a top-level meeting took place on Tuesday this week, presided by French Head of State Emmanuel Macron and attended by Buffet, Barnier, Larcher and Braun-Pivet.

The objective, once again, was to reinforce the signal that the time had come to resume political dialogue.

Macron indicated earlier that he still intended to host a meeting in Paris sometime in November.

Roger-Lacan said she was still hopeful that the Forum troika mission, just as all the other ones in what seems to be a flurry of visits to New Caledonia, could possibly "condemn all forms of violence and once again call for a de-escalation of the situation, "respect all forms of free and fair, transparent and democratic consultations in the respect of the right to self-determination" and eventually "use all these possibilities of free expression (...) to attain this self-determination in the respect of everyone's opinion and dialogue".

The French diplomat said in terms of media coverage of the PIF high-level visit, France (the host power), the government of New Caledonia (the non-self-governing territory, under UN terminology) and the Forum was still fine-tuning details.

"But in any case, pictures and videos will be allowed".

Since violent riots broke out in New Caledonia on May 13, thirteen people have died (including eleven civilians and two French gendarmes), hundreds have been injured.

On the economic level, over eight hundred businesses have been looted and destroyed by fire, close to twenty thousand people have lost their jobs and the total damage has been assessed at about 2.2 billion Euros, leaving the French Pacific territory's economy on its knees.

Over the past five months, France's emergency financial assistance to New Caledonia has been estimated at some 400 million Euros just to keep the economy afloat, especially to maintain essential services.

In normal circumstances, France's financial transfers to New Caledonia are estimated at amounting some 1.5 billion Euros per year.