New Caledonia: opening of negotiations between Valls and local representatives

On a trip to New Caledonia, the Minister for Overseas Territories, Manuels Valls , began "institutional negotiations" with local representatives on Wednesday, February 26, according to his ministry. "After the first few days with Caledonians on the ground, a new stage opens this morning with the start of institutional negotiations. All political parties are gathered around the same table, for the first time in a long time," announced the Ministry for Overseas Territories on the social network X.

Arriving on Saturday, Manuel Valls pleaded Tuesday for peace and "living together" on the eve of these negotiations, in which the separatists have agreed to participate. "Without political compromise, there is no economic future. Without dialogue, there is no lasting peace," the Overseas Ministry stressed on X Wednesday morning. "New Caledonia deserves everyone to rise to the occasion of this historic moment," he added.

The concept of "living together" , enshrined in the Matignon (1988) and Noumea (1998) agreements which brought peace to New Caledonia after the period of quasi-civil war in the mid-1980s, was undermined by the violence of 2024 which rekindled ethnic tensions between the Kanak and European populations.