The agreement for the archipelago that bore the disturbances last year allows its own condition but remains within the French barn.
France announced a “historic” deal with New Calidonia, where the South Pacific region was shaken by a A wave of disorders Last year on the controversial Electoral reformsA new country will be declared.
The 13 -page agreement, which was reached on Saturday, after negotiations in Paris between the French government and groups on both sides of independence in the region, proposes the creation of a “case of New Calidonia”, with its nationality, but it is no less than the independence that many of the indigenous people are looking for.
“A case of New Calidonia within the Republic: It is a bet on confidence,” French President Emmanuel Macron published X, saying that the time has come for “respect, stability and … goodwill to build a common future.”
Under the agreement, New Calidonia will immediately control its foreign policy, but it can put the transfer of additional sovereign authorities on defense, currency, security and justice for the public vote, and may pave the way until it becomes a member state of the United Nations, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
The turmoil erupted in May 2024, after Paris proposed a law allowing thousands of indigenous people in the long run in the region to vote in the regional elections, which led to the alleviation of the 1998 agreement that restricts these rights.
Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the region’s population of about 300,000, was afraid that they would leave them in a permanent minority, which reduces their influence and crushes their chances of winning independence.
It is estimated that the violence, in which 14 people were killed, cost the region two billion euros (2.3 billion dollars), and fly 10 percent of its GDP (GDP), according to Manuel Vallz, Minister of France for external lands.
Emmanuel Tjao, the legislator in Canak who participated in the talks, said the agreement would help us get out of the vortex.
The legislator, Nicholas Mitzdorf, who prefers to stay in the French barn, said that the settlement agreement was born from a “demand dialogue”, describing the Calidian citizenship as a “real privilege.”
Both rooms will meet France in the fourth quarter of this year to vote on the approval of the deal, which will then be presented to Calidonian, a new referendum in 2026.
A smart compromise
New Cledonia is approximately 17,000 km (10600 miles) from Paris, and New Caldia from Paris since the nineteenth century.
Many indigenous Kanaks still resent France’s strength on their islands and want more independence or independence.
The last independence referendum was held in New Caldonia in 2021.
However, they were boycotted by pro-independence groups on the impact of the Covid-19 on the Kanak population, and since then the political situation has been presented in the archipelago.
Valls described a deal on Saturday as a “intelligent compromise” that maintains links between France and New Colides, but with more sovereignty of the Pacific Island.
The deal also calls for an economic and financial recovery agreement that includes renewing nickel treatment capabilities in the region.
https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/AFP__20250712__66M47DD__v1__HighRes__FranceOverseasNcaledoniaPolitics-1752351752.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440
Source link