In quick:
Pacific Leaders are calling for France to permit a delegation to go to New Caledonia, the place violent unrest has left 10 lifeless.
Regional nations have considerations about the latest independence referendum in the French territory.
The PALM assembly between Pacific nations and Japan has wrapped up with a joint assertion opposing “any way of aggression” or “unilateral attempts to change the status quo” by menace or use of power.
Pacific leaders are ramping up pressure on France over tensions in New Caledonia, urgent Paris to permit a “high-level” Pacific delegation to go to the troubled territory earlier than a essential regional assembly subsequent month.
Both pro-independence politicians from New Caledonia and French diplomats have been assembly with Pacific leaders to press their case on the margins of the Pacific Alliance Leaders Meeting (PALM) with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
During the previous two months, New Caledonia has been rocked by violent riots and widespread unrest that has left 10 folks lifeless.
The state of affairs has progressively calmed in current weeks, however some Pacific leaders maintain France liable for the chaos, accusing it of backtracking on decolonisation commitments in New Caledonia — accusations Paris forcefully denies.
The Pacific Islands Forum’s (PIF) present chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, informed reporters that PIF had requested France let in a “high-level” delegation in “a matter of weeks”.
“There has been a request from the government of New Caledonia for a high-level Pacific delegation. We’ll now go through the process of how we’ll put that into practice,” he stated.
“But of course, it will require the support of France, for the admission of a high-level delegation of leaders from the Pacific to take place.
“So that is a piece in progress.”
Several Pacific countries want the delegation visit before the PIF Leaders Meeting, which is due to be held in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, at the end of August.
One Pacific government source told the ABC that France seemed open to the delegation visiting, but was pushing for it to come later this year, after the PIF leaders meeting — possibly in September or October.
The French Embassy in Canberra was contacted on Thursday evening but has not yet responded to requests for comment.
New Caledonia has been roiled by unrest since May, when rioting, looting and arson broke out.
The chaos was initially triggered by outrage at a French government move to expand eligibility for local government elections, which pro-independence forces said was an attempt to dilute their political power.
Hundreds of businesses and homes have been damaged or destroyed, with French authorities deploying armoured vehicles and almost 3,000 additional police to restore order.
Some of the chaos has been fuelled by anger among Indigenous Kanaks, who believe France has deliberately stymied their push for complete autonomy, rather than acting as a neutral arbiter between French loyalists and independence parties.
France has held three referendums on New Caledonia’s political future, and the primary two votes have been uncontroversial and universally seen to be each free and truthful. In each, voters narrowly determined to remain a part of France slightly than making a full break for independence.
Pacific shares pro-independence considerations over last referendum
But Pacific leaders and pro-independence leaders hotly dispute the legitimacy of the third and final referendum in 2021.
The referendum was held in the wake of a major COVID-19 outbreak that took a heavy toll on the Kanak community, and many Kanak voters and pro-independence parties boycotted the vote, saying they could not interrupt customary mourning to campaign.
Earlier this week, Pacific leaders from the Melanesian Spearhead Group sharply criticised the third referendum and called for a “new and truthful self-determination referendum to be performed with technical preparatory supervision by UN consultants and remark missions”.
PIF Forum Chair Mark Brown backed those criticisms on Thursday, saying the organisations had “comparable considerations” to the MSG.
“The reality the third referendum was boycotted by the Kanak inhabitants due to the impacts of COVID and the respect for the mourning interval folks had … it made the outcomes of that exact referendum, I assume, probably not legitimate,” he stated.
French authorities have rejected those criticisms in the past, saying all three votes remained open to all New Caledonians, and that it has an obligation to respect the wishes of all people in the territory — not just those who are ardent supporters of full independence.
It has also accused criminal elements and political extremists in New Caledonia of opportunistically and deliberately stoking the violence and unrest.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not wade into the controversy, including questions on whether she would seek to join the delegation, telling reporters in Tokyo that Pacific nations would continue to “talk about” the difficulty.
“I believe there’s a shared view round Pacific island nations in regards to the significance of peace and stability [in New Caledonia]. Obviously, we now have all been involved in regards to the battle and violence we now have seen,” she stated.
“We’re happy issues are extra steady now. I might anticipate the PIF will decide about what its engagement will likely be with New Caledonia and the French state.”
Meeting concludes with eye on China’s menace to Taiwan
The PALM assembly wrapped up late on Thursday, with leaders discussing a number of points together with local weather change, commerce, catastrophe responses and cybercrime.
Japan has been keen to beef up its presence in the Pacific, despite already being the region’s second-largest aid donor and having the second-largest diplomatic presence.
It has steadily ramped up its investments in Pacific infrastructure and development assistance, as well as stepping up security assistance through the Japanese Self Defence Forces and coastguard.
In opening remarks, Japan’s prime minister said that he wanted to “stroll collectively in direction of the longer term” with the Pacific, while stressing the urgent need to tackle regional and global crises such as climate change.
Japan depends closely on the area for meals, with 40 per cent of domestically consumed tuna coming from the unique financial zones of Pacific nations.
But it is also wary of China’s growing influence in the region, particularly since Solomon Islands signed a contentious security deal with Beijing in 2022.
In a final joint statement, Pacific leaders and Mr Kishida did not directly mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but said they “opposed any battle of aggression and dedicated to in search of everlasting and sustainable peace in step with worldwide regulation together with the UN Charter”.
They additionally “expressed sturdy opposition to any unilateral makes an attempt to vary the established order by the menace or use of power or coercion wherever in the world” — a line diplomats said was a clear reference to China’s threat to invade Taiwan.
However, that will fly in the face of what the leaders of both Vanuatu and Solomon Islands declared in China last week, once they signed joint statements supporting Beijing’s push for “reunification” with Taiwan.
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