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Paris to organise another meeting?
New Caledonian politicians hope that a new meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Pacific islands leaders can be organised later this year, after the failure of the third France-Oceania summit.
France has organised three summits since 2003 to improve relations with Pacific Islands states and discuss issues of regional security, development and environment. But President Sarkozy did not attend the July 31 summit in Noumea as originally planned and Pacific leaders stayed away in droves.
Announcing the France-Oceania summit, French officials stated: “This summit confirms the importance that France attaches to its relations with Pacific states, with whom we have developed a partnership that contributes to political, economic, and social stability in the region.”
But the absence of the French president from the Noumea meeting has overshadowed France’s agenda in the region.
Speaking to ISLANDS BUSINESS at the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, the speaker of New Caledonia’s Congress Harold Martin said that Noumea was lobbying Paris to hold another meeting as soon as possible in the aftermath of the summit.
“We spoke with France’s Foreign Affairs Minister, hoping that the French President might host another gathering in Paris later this year or early next year,” said Martin. “This could be an opportunity to discuss European Union funding for the Pacific.”
Chirac’s summit
The first France-Oceania summit was held in July 2003 in Papeete, as an initiative of former French President Jacques Chirac and French Polynesia’s Gaston Flosse. The two men had a close personal and political relationship and Flosse proposed the summit as a way of improving France’s relations with the region after the era of nuclear testing and the signing of the Noumea Accord in 1998.
Chirac travelled to Tahiti (French Polynesia) for the first meeting and then hosted a second summit in Paris, in June 2006. The second meeting coincided with the official opening of the Quay Branly Museum of indigenous cultures—an opportunity for Pacific leaders to visit this pet project of the French President, which gathers artwork and artefacts from indigenous communities around the world.
With New Caledonia and French Polynesia gaining observer status at the Pacific Islands Forum (later upgraded to associate membership), French officials also saw these summits as a way to integrate France into regional intergovernmental networks. In the lead-up to the 2006 summit, then Secretary for Overseas Territories Francois Baroin stated: “France for its part should become a privileged Forum partner and therefore take part in the annual meetings of what is the main political organisation of the region.”
Sarkozy drops out
The third leaders summit was held on July 31, 2009 in Noumea, but the one thing missing was the host!
During the 2007 Presidential election campaign, Sarkozy promised a visit to New Caledonia, where anti-independence voters gave him overwhelming support. He later expressed an interest in being the first French president to visit Australia.
This commitment to visit the South Pacific raised high hopes in New Caledonia, which is seeking closer ties with neighbouring Pacific countries. Last May, former President Harold Martin said: “This is an unprecedented event. Not every French President has made it to New Caledonia, and Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged he’ll do it. His arrival will coincide with the holding of the third France-Oceania summit where all the region’s islands leaders will be present. The presence of all these leaders, together with the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers, will be an historic and profitable moment for New Caledonia.”
The original vision was that the summit would precede the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, and that Sarkozy would also make a brief visit to Australia between the two events.
In the months leading to the summit, there was a flurry of diplomatic manoeuvring to develop a programme and organise logistics (for example, the dates for a major Pacific conference organised by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute to coincide with the Cairns Forum were rearranged to allow Pacific delegates to fly to Noumea).
However, the plan for President Sarkozy to host the summit came to naught. With a busy European schedule, Sarkozy has never had the same ties to the Pacific as his predecessor and rival Jacques Chirac (indeed, the French authorities are currently investigating Gaston Flosse on corruption charges).
Sarkozy’s visit to the southern hemisphere was never locked in and the summit began to look like a diplomatic disaster. Attempts to organise French Prime Minister Francois Fillon to travel to the South Pacific also failed. It was only days before the summit that a formal announcement revealed Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner would represent the French President, accompanied by Secretary of State for Overseas Affairs Marie-Luce Penchard.
In the end, Kouchner only made a 36-hour flying visit to Noumea. The working session of the summit at the SPC headquarters in Anse Vata amounted to just a few hours, overlain with official dinners and a visit to the Tjibaou Cultural Centre. New Caledonia’s newly elected President Philippe Gomes stated that it was “sad for New Caledonia and for France in the South Pacific” that the French President and Prime Minister were unable to attend.
Anti-independence leader Pierre Frogier, affiliated to Sarkozy’s UMP Party, also expressed regrets at the absence of the President and the lack of substance to the meeting. Frogier told Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes: “Listen, two hours around the table is too short. Like all these major diplomatic meetings, the real work has been done before-hand by the embassies and diplomatic networks…When things are ready, there can be formal diplomatic exchanges. The real interest for this rendezvous in the Pacific is therefore a physical meeting between these Pacific Heads of State and the President of the French Republic.”
Roch Wamytan, head of the FLNKS group within New Caledonia’s Congress, described the summit as a “flop” and announced that his party was boycotting the gathering: “This summit is a provocation. Within the framework of decolonisation currently underway in New Caledonia, the role of foreign affairs is supposed to be transferred to our country, but France is acting as if it wants to keep that responsibility for all time.”
Members of the Union Calédonienne Party in the congress issued a statement condemning the summit: “New Caledonia has become a platform to defend the wider interests of France within our Pacific region, disguised under its aid to islands states and under the pretext of sustainable development and the preservation of marine biodiversity. We have requested our brother countries—Melanesian, Polynesian, Micronesian as well as Australia and New Zealand—not to support the hegemonic strategy of France in our Pacific region and to refrain from participating in this staged farce from Paris.”
International delegates were greeted by tight security in Noumea as striking workers took to the streets to protest the jailing in June of Gerard Jodar, the President of the USTKE union confederation.
Limited participation
The summit communiqué bravely asserts that all Forum nations were represented by their “heads of state or governments or their representatives.” But the failure of French officials to confirm the replacement for President Sarkozy until the last minute meant that the majority of Pacific leaders deferred their travel to Noumea.
Only five Forum member countries were represented at the summit by their President or Prime Minister—other islands nations sent ministers or were only represented at officials’ level. New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully decided to travel to London for a Commonwealth meeting on Fiji and New Zealand was represented by Defence Minister Wayne Mapp. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith decided to focus on the Forum leaders meeting in Cairns and Australia was represented by Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Islands Affairs Duncan Kerr. As in 2006, Timor-Leste was invited to attend, but failed to send a delegation.
Another notable absence was Fiji. The military-backed interim administration was not invited to the summit, matching the diplomatic isolation from the Forum and Commonwealth. France has joined the European Union to condemn the 2006 military coup in Fiji (in contrast to Colonel Rabuka’s first coup in 1987, when Paris provided trucks, a helicopter and other support to Fiji after Australia, New Zealand and the United States cut military aid to Fiji).
France’s regional relations
In spite of these diplomatic dramas, Foreign Minister Kouchner pronounced the meeting a success. He announced the summit had covered “sustainable development, food security, the management of fish resources in the Pacific Ocean, climate change and its adverse effects on Pacific islands, regional security and stability and regional cooperation.”
There were also pledges of support for regional organisations and commitments to ease short-stay visa requirements to the French Pacific and develop opportunities for young islanders to teach English in primary and secondary schools
As the second largest donor to the European Development Fund (EDF) after Germany, France also plays a key role in European Union initiatives in the region. With EDF funding for the Pacific worth 389 million Euros between 2008-2013, the EU is playing an increasing role in the region, even with the failure to finalise negotiations for a regional EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Summits come and go. But with the diplomatic faux pas in Noumea in sharp contrast to the turnup at the Cairns Forum leaders meeting, Paris may want to try again in promoting France-Oceania ties.
— By Nic Maclellan
Operation Kurukuru a success
One fishing vessel was fined US$10,000, another apprehended and some others investigated following a successful maritime surveillance operation mounted by Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).
Dubbed Operation Kurukuru 2009, the surveillance enabled FFA member countries to cooperate to detect activities such as illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, smuggling and people trafficking.
Operation Kurukuru 2009 resulted in 21 boardings of vessels and three apprehension of vessels which were escorted to port for further investigation.
In Tuvalu, one Korean flagged FFV vessel was fined US$10,000 for misreporting its discarded species on its log bogs. The four aircraft involved in the operation flew a total of 85 hours and covered approximately 800,000 square nautical miles.
Covering an area of approximately 10 million square kilometres—including the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu—Operation Kurukuru 2009 involved fisheries surveillance and enforcement staff from all of these countries working together with their counterparts from Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States over 10 days of surveillance.
Surveillance was conducted by individual countries within their respective EEZ’s using seven Pacific Class Patrol Boats (from Cook Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Vanuatu) and 1 French Patrol Boat.
This was supported by aerial surveillance provided by four Maritime Patrol Aircraft (2 P-3 Orions supplied by Australia & New Zealand, a Guardian supplied by France and a Hercules C-130 from the US Coast Guard).
This year, Operation Kurukuru was hosted and coordinated by FFA at its regional headquarters in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
All countries had access to an FFA web-based map of surveillance flights, licensed vessels and unlicensed vessels, so individual countries were able to send out patrol boats where aerial surveillance had identified suspicious activities or vessels.
Outcomes include:
• Tuvalu’s patrol boat boarded and fined a foreign fishing vessel for misreporting its catch.
• Solomon Islands’ patrol boat boarded and apprehended two foreign fishing vessels for a number of breaches.
• The aerial surveillance effort identified a number of vessels apparently not complying with their FFA registration and licence conditions and are subject to further investigation.
FFA’s Director of Fisheries Operations, Luatutu Andre Volentras, said: “Operation Kurukuru is a great example of how information sharing and cooperation between countries can lead to more detection and deterrence of illegal fishing. FFA will assist countries to learn from experiences like these so Pacific Islands can monitor and control their fisheries in future and protect one of the region’s key assets – tuna.”
‘We want better co-ordination, report of how our aid is used’—Taiwan
While dwindling aid funds are a concern to Pacific Islands Forum nations, Taiwan wants its aid to be better coordinated. And it also wants to know how it is being used.
The call was made by Taiwan’s Deputy Trade Minister Andrew Hsia after raising concerns about reports on their aid at the recent joint Forum /Taiwan dialogue in Australia. At the same time, Taiwan’s allies in the Pacific have expressed concerns over diminished funding from Taipei.
While this year’s aid has seen an increase compared to last year’s, it is understood that if Pacific allies are serious about the cash assistance, detailed accounts of how the aid is being used may be the prescribed medication to secure more.
For a region that accepts whatever aid it can get from friends like Taiwan and in this age of the global cash crisis, any reduction in aid can be quite adverse.
Heads of the six Forum Islands Countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan urged Taipei to address their concerns.
“This needs addressing urgently as it is important for the region to know the direction and quantum of assistance that Taiwan will provide in future years. If there is going to be a continuing reduction, then efforts will have to be made to secure resources required to support high impact initiatives from other partners, said a briefing paper.
In response, Taiwan’s head of delegation, Hsia said his country remains committed to supporting not just its allies, but all Forum Islands Countries. “We want better aid co-ordination between us and the regional agencies. We want a report from agencies on the effective use of our funds,” said Hsia.
This, he said, was part of moves by President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration to make transparent its overseas aid. This follows the arrest of former Taiwanese president, Chen Shui-bian for the alleged illegal use of ‘special leadership fund’ during his eight years in power.
“President Ma wants to get rid of the chequebook diplomacy label. Some of the approaches we took in the past may have not been appropriate. We have a foreign aid white paper which dictates that any projects with recipient countries must be transparent and guided by the Paris Declaration,” explained Hsia.
Between 1999 to 2009, Taiwan has provided over US$11.5 million to the region through the regional organisations. Of this, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community received 30 percent of the funding amounting to US$3.4 million for the implementation of 111 projects.
Despite the reduction in aid, the six allies of Taiwan—Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu—have pledged their support for a formal recognition of Taiwan in the full Forum process.
Nauru President Marcus Stephens said the issue has been discussed and will be further deliberated at the Taiwan/Pacific Leaders Summit in Solomon Islands in October.
“Taiwan has contributed so much in the last 20 years. They deserve to be part of the Forum whether as a full dialogue partner or observer,” said President Stephens.
In response, Minister Hsia said: “We have been asking for this for many years.”
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