The Pacific debate France wants to keep under wraps

2026-03-23 - 16:03

Comment: Earlier this month, I was one of more than 20 researchers, mostly from Oceania and Europe, generously invited to participate in a research colloquium at the University of French Polynesia in Tahiti on the theme ‘Sovereignty in Question’. Like other attendees, I was concerned to discover access to the event by members of the wider university and the public had been severely restricted due to pressure from France apparently placed on the organisers. This was reported by media in French Polynesia and by Le Monde in France. These restrictions occurred despite the fact the event was largely funded by France’s own Pacific Fund, a fund designed to “promote social, economic, scientific, and cultural development and integration in the Pacific”. It’s a strong indication of just how sensitive the question of sovereignty remains in France’s Pacific territories – two of which, New Caledonia and French Polynesia, remain on the UN’s list of non-self-governing territories. It also highlights the way that public debate on, and awareness of, the sovereignty question can be closed down. The restrictions have been robustly denounced by French Polynesia’s president Moetai Brotherson, by Mereana Reid Arbelot – a Tahitian member of France’s National Assembly – in a letter to French president Emmanuel Macron, and by University of French Polynesia students themselves in a forceful petition. This petition observes, “excluding the general public from a conference devoted to their own sovereignty is to deprive them of a debate that belongs to them first and foremost”, and that “debate on a people’s sovereignty cannot take place without that people”. It asks for the student community to be involved in organising any further event touching on French Polynesia’s future. The restrictions have also been the subject of a written question in France’s National Assembly, asking the minister responsible for France’s overseas collectivities, “for what specific reasons did the government request or encourage this academic conference to be held behind closed doors”, and what guarantees France’s government can provide to ensure “respect for academic freedom and university autonomy”. For all the denunciations, and the questions yet to be answered, it remains the case that the substance of what was discussed at the colloquium regarding sovereignty and international relations in the region has been largely obscured. The aspect of the colloquium likely to have created the most sensitivity was the considerable attention devoted to New Caledonia. Sovereignty, in all its forms, remains among the most pressing questions facing the country in the wake of the May 2024 insurrection, and amidst ongoing efforts to chart New Caledonia’s future relationship with France and secure agreement for recently proposed political reforms. The principal grouping of New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties, the FLNKS, remains strongly committed to achieving “full sovereignty”, while customary groups have also been rallying in recent years to assert the indigenous sovereignty of the country’s chieftaincies. However, the French government and anti-independence parties persist in seeking to secure France’s own sovereignty, in line with France’s ambition to remain an Indo-Pacific presence. With support from part of the independence movement, they are advancing a new political statute for New Caledonia, which would give it greater autonomy as a ‘state’ within France. This is along with renewed French backing for economic development and the struggling nickel industry, loosening restrictions on who can vote in the territory, and setting a high bar for any future referendum on actual independence. Approved by France’s Senate in February, the next step is for the proposal to go before France’s National Assembly (possibly as soon as March 31) before being submitted to both Houses to allow the necessary amendment to France’s constitution. This is by no means a given, as there is a strong likelihood it may be voted down in the National Assembly. It is also not without risk. In May 2024, an attempt to bulldoze through another political reform for New Caledonia, without support from the independence movement, sparked the major insurrection from which the country is still recovering. A key argument against the current proposal is that it lacks local consensus. It is strongly opposed by the majority of the independence movement, which is concerned the proposal is incompatible with the goals of achieving full sovereignty and advancing decolonisation. There is special concern that measures to give more powers to New Caledonia’s three provinces, including over tax revenue, will only reinforce economic and social inequalities that previous accords have sought to diminish. Opponents are also calling for new elections to take place for New Caledonia’s provincial governments to renew and re-legitimise the country’s political leadership before any further discussions. The last such elections in New Caledonia were held in 2019 and are now more than two years overdue. The pressure placed on a university to minimise public discussion of such matters, as well as the failure to find a consensual way forward with the pro-independence parties, shows France continues to struggle with decolonisation and its attempt to reinvent its relations with its former colonies. While the colloquium’s proceedings will eventually be published, the closing of doors on informed academic discussion of these and other issues means they will not have benefited from timely public exposure or engagement.