PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron's ambitions to deepen French influence in the Pacific, where China is expanding its security ties, could be put at risk by the heavy-handed response to civil unrest in New Caledonia, Pacific analysts and officials said.
This photograph shows burnt cars of the Renault Dacia parking lot in the Magenta district of Noumea, France 's Pacific territory of New Caledonia , on May 17, 2024. PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron's ambitions to deepen French influence in the Pacific, where China is expanding its security ties, could be put at risk by the heavy-handed response to civil unrest in New Caledonia , Pacific analysts and officials said.
After striking a security pact with the Solomon Islands in 2022 that alarmed Washington, Beijing failed to reach a Pacific-wide trade and security deal. Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders met in August to consider security cooperation with China, on which no decision has been made. France annexed the island in 1853 and gave the colony the status of overseas territory in 1946. It has long been rocked by pro-independence movements.
"France is trying to re-emerge as a Pacific partner and this will evidently not help that image," said Nobetau, a former Papua New Guinea government adviser on international security deals.
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