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New Caledonia, French Polynesia At UN Decolonisation Seminar In Dili
Patrick Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific Desk
New Caledonia and French Polynesia are sending strong delegations this week to the United Nations (UN) Pacific regional seminar on the implementation of the Fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in Timor Leste.
The seminar is scheduled to be held in Dili from 21 to 23 May.
As French Pacific non-self-governing territories, the two Pacific territories will brief the UN on recent developments at the event, which is themed "Pathways to a sustainable future - advancing socioeconomic and cultural development of the Non-Self-Governing Territories".
New Caledonia and French Polynesia are both in the UN's list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonised, respectively since 1986 and 2013.
Nouméa-based France's Ambassador for the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan is also attending.
After the Dili meeting this week, the UN's Fourth Commission is holding its formal meeting in New York in July and again in October in the margins of the UN General Assembly.
As New Caledonia marks the first anniversary of the civil unrest that killed 14 and caused material damage to the tune of €2.2 billion this month, the French Pacific territory's political parties have been engaged for the past four months in political talks with France to define New Caledonia's political future.
However, the talks have not yet managed to produce a consensual way forward between pro-France and pro-independence groups.
French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, at the end of the most recent session on 8 May, put on the table a project of "sovereignty with France" which was met by strong opposition by the pro-France "Loyalists" (anti-independence) camp.
This year again, parties and groups from around the political spectrum are planning to travel to Dili to plead their respective cases.
Topping the list is New Caledonia's government President Alcide Ponga, who chairs the pro-France Rassemblement party and came to power in January 2025.
Other represented institutions include New Caledonia's customary (traditional) Senate, a kind of Great Council of Chiefs, which also sends participants to ensure the voice of indigenous Kanak people is heard.
Over the past two years, pro-France groups have become more aware of the need for them to be more vocal and present at regional and international fora.
French Polynesia back on the UN list since 2013
In French Polynesia, the pro-independence ruling Tavini Huiraatira party commemorated the 12th anniversary re-inscription to the UN list of territories to be decolonised on 17 May 2013.
This week, Tavini also sends a strong delegation to Timor Leste, which includes Territorial Assembly President Antony Géros.
However, the pro-France parties, locally known as "pro-autonomy", also want to ensure their views are taken into account.
One of them is Moerani Frébault, one of French Polynesia's representatives at the French National Assembly.
"Contrary to what the pro-independence people are saying, we're not dominated by the French Republic", he told local media at a news conference at the weekend.
Frébault said the pro-autonomy parties now want to invite a UN delegation to French Polynesia "so they can see for themselves that we have all the tools we need for our development.
"This is the message we want to get across".
Territorial Assembly member Tepuaraurii Teriitahi, from the pro-autonomy Tapura Huiraatira party, is also travelling to Dili.
"The majority of (French) Polynesians is not pro-independence. So when we travel to this kind of seminar, it is because we want to counter those who allege that the whole of (French) Polynesians is sharing this aspiration for independence", she said.
On the pro-independence side in Papeete, the official line is that it wants Paris to at least engage in talks with French Polynesia to "open the subject of decolonisation".
For the same purpose, the Tavini party, in April 2025, officially presented a draft for what could become a "Constitution of a Federated Republic of Ma'ohi Nui".
The document is sometimes described as drawing inspirations from France and the United States, but is not yet regarded as fully matured.
Earlier this month, French Polynesia's President Moetai Brotherson was in Paris for a series of meetings with several members of the French cabinet, including Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls and French Foreign Affairs minister Yannick Neuder.
Valls is currently contemplating visiting French Polynesia early in July 2025.
Brotherson came to power in May 2023.
Since being elected to the top post, he has stressed that independence, although it remained a longterm goal, was not an immediate priority.
He also said many times that he wished for relations with France to evolve, especially on the decolonisation subject.
"I think we should put those ten years of misunderstanding, of denial of dialogue behind us", he said.
In October 2023, for the first time since French Polynesia was re-inscribed on the UN list, France made representations at the UN Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (Fourth Committee), ending a ten-year empty chair hiatus .
But the message delivered by French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Rivière, was unambiguous.
He said that French Polynesia "has no place" on the UN list of non-autonomous territories because "French Polynesia's history is not the history of New Caledonia".
He also voiced France's wish to have French Polynesia withdrawn from the UN list.
The UN list of non-self-governing territories currently includes 17 territories worldwide and six of those are located in the Pacific: American Samoa, Guam, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Pitcairn Islands and Tokelau.
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