France's Minister of Overseas Manuel Valls (front L) greets the President of the Government of New Caledonia Alcide Ponga (R) as Senator Georges Naturel (C) looks on during his arrival for a military honours ceremony at the Croix de Lorraine in Noumea, France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on February 22, 2025. Photo: Delphine Mayeur / AFP
French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls will return to New Caledonia for further political talks one week later than originally planned, local media report.
After an initial one-week visit to New Caledonia, which ended on 1 March, Valls said he was planning to come back for more political talks sometime around 22 March.
However, the revised plan now mentions a four-day visit between 29 March and 1 April.
In the meantime, the former French Prime minister also had to travel to La Réunion Island (in the Indian Ocean) and is currently visiting the French Caribbean overseas territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Valls managed to get all political stakeholders around the same table for talks on the French Pacific territory's institutional and future status during his first New Caledonia visit earlier this month.
He left behind a public "synthesis" document summing up both pro-France and pro-independence camps' often radically antagonistic views.
Both camps have also since clearly stated that the talks, so far, could only be described as "discussions", not negotiations, per se that could come at a later stage.
In an interview with French media outlets BFMTV and RMC last week, he said he did not believe the situation in New Caledonia had been appeased.
"It is still tense because there's been a lot of violence (since the May 2024 insurrectional riots), a lot of fear, a lot of racism, and people who no longer speak to each other."
"I will continue to work with a lot of humility," he said, adding, "because even if we managed to bring together all political forces so they can speak to each other again, we are still far from an agreement."
"One has to understand the fear all of our compatriots over there, and especially those of European origin, have gone through. And to understand also the Kanaks' aspiration to emancipation and decolonisation.
"So these are two logics that are still ongoing and now we have to ensure that through dialogue, a political agreement can emerge from this," he added.
