{"id":19134,"date":"2024-11-27T06:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T06:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19134"},"modified":"2024-11-27T06:29:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T06:29:10","slug":"troubled-new-caledonia-at-turning-point-nz-foreign-minister-peters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19134","title":{"rendered":"Troubled New Caledonia at \u2018turning point\u2019: NZ Foreign Minister Peters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Zealand has urged France to forge a new constitutional relationship with its troubled external territory New Caledonia, marred by civil unrest.<\/p>\n

A bungled proposal to widen the voting franchise in the Pacific Island country produced riots in May, resulting in more than a dozen deaths, widespread looting and arrests.<\/p>\n

The reform derailed the long-standing Noumea Accord, a pledge from Paris to give the colonised territory more power to self-govern.<\/p>\n

Since then, the French and New Caledonian governments, regional neighbours and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) have attempted to smooth waters between the agitated camps.<\/p>\n

Australia has been active behind the scenes, while New Zealand engages in more public diplomacy.<\/p>\n

On a visit to Paris this week, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested replacing the Noumea Accord with a new shared governance structure.<\/p>\n

Recalling American poet Robert Frost\u2019s work The Road Not Taken, Peters said \u201cin 2024, that road has become overgrown and blocked by choices already made and actions already taken\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe therefore think that in Noumea and Paris, the key to restore the spirit of earlier understandings is for all parties to have open minds about their next crucial choice, about a new path forward, because France and the people of New Caledonia stand at a new turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n

That turning point could be granting fresh autonomy, akin to New Zealand\u2019s own relationship with its realm nations of Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of constitutional models out there, including across the Pacific,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur realm relationships are stable and mutually beneficial, so enduring, and the constitutional mechanisms provide for maximum self-determination while ensuring that New Zealand\u2019s security and defence interests remain protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea to rethink constitutional ties is similar to one made by Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) chair Hu\u2019akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, Tonga\u2019s Prime Minister, who suggested looking at \u201cvarious models\u201d last month.<\/p>\n

Peters, 79, and in his third stint as foreign minister through a near-50-year political career, has visited all but two of the Pacific Island Forum members states this year.<\/p>\n

He was unable to visit New Caledonia due to the unrest, and Kiribati, which has closed borders to diplomats.<\/p>\n

Peters said the desire of Kanaks to gain more control over their homelands was understandable given recent history.<\/p>\n

\u201cRising Pacific nationalism is something we have closely observed since the mid-to-late 1980s, so the direction it\u2019s taken, while sometimes confronting, is not surprising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge, then, as now, is to create a new pathway that meets the ambitions and aspirations of all New Caledonians of all backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s speech was not Peters\u2019 first foray into the sensitive matter.<\/p>\n

In July, he was rebuked by France\u2019s ambassador to the Pacific, Veronique Roger-Lacan, for suggesting the third independence vote as part of the Noumea Accord wasn\u2019t legitimate.<\/p>\n

France pushed ahead with that vote despite a boycott by Kanaks, who were grieving pandemic deaths, producing a 43 per cent turnout.<\/p>\n

Peters said it was \u201cwithin the letter of the law \u2026 not within the spirit of it\u201d while Roger-Lacan said he did not make sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is legal. Full stop,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While that speech may have taken Paris by surprise, this time around Peters has engaged the new French government in advance, meeting France\u2019s Overseas Territories Minister Francois-Noel Buffet overnight.<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 lecture, delivered to the French Institute of International Relations, did not address concerns of widespread abuses of power by France since the unrest began.<\/p>\n

A UN report in August alleged thousands of Kanak protesters were arrested and detained, many arbitrarily, by French police who arrived to quell discontent.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand has urged France to forge a new constitutional relationship with its troubled external territory New Caledonia, marred by civil unrest. A bungled proposal to widen the voting franchise in the Pacific Island country produced riots in May, resulting in more than a dozen deaths, widespread looting and arrests. The reform derailed the long-standing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}