Winston Peters to make trip to New Caledonia

Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to New Caledonia this week on his second trip to the territory in less than six months.

There has been a change of Government since his last visit.

New Caledonia has been a trouble spot in the Pacific following civil unrest last year, sparked by a heavy-handed constitutional reform from France, the territory’s colonial power.

Peters will meet the French Minister for Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls, and the President of the Government of New Caledonia, Alcide Ponga. Valls is a senior French politician, having previously served as Prime Minister under President François Hollande.

Ponga became President earlier this year, after Peters’ last visit. He leads a party that favours closer relations with France.

“This visit comes at an important moment in New Caledonia’s history and reinforces New Zealand’s commitment to being a constructive partner in the region for both New Caledonia and France,” Peters said.

“We are looking forward to meeting the new leadership of the Government of New Caledonia and continuing New Zealand’s warm and long-standing relationship with France.

“New Zealand wants to listen, learn and support New Caledonia’s pathway forward as a neighbour and fellow member of the Pacific Islands Forum,” he said.

Tensions are still high in the territory after last year’s unrest. Some New Caledonians, primarily members of the Indigenous Kanak community, want full independence from France, while others, primarily those who trace their ancestry back to France, prefer a closer relationship.

Valls, visiting the territory for the third time in two months, said all parties needed to try to make a new political agreement possible or risk a civil war.

“We’ll take our responsibilities, on our part, and we will put on the table a project that touches New Caledonia’s society, economic recovery, including nickel, and the future of the younger generation”, he told French journalists on Sunday.

RNZ Pacific reported Valls said there existed a “difficult path” that might reconcile the views of those who wanted full independence for the territory and those who wanted it to remain part of France.

“If there is no agreement, then economic and political uncertainty can lead to a new disaster, to confrontation and to civil war”, he said.

Peters will also visit the Pacific Community (SPC), a leading science and technical agency in the Pacific, and meet with Director-General Dr Stuart Minchin.

Thomas Coughlan is the NZ Herald political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.