31 Jan 2012

Top French/Tahiti meeting uncertain

7:28 pm on 31 January 2012

French Polynesia's President Oscar Temaru says he will meet the French overseas territories minister, Marie-Luce Penchard, in Tahiti if they can see each other as equals.

Her visit later this week comes amid deep economic problems and a tense political relationship.

Walter Zweifel reports.

"Oscar Temaru says he won't meet Mrs Penchard as a vassal facing a master. Pushing his decolonisation campaign, he has told local television that the institutions in place in Tahiti are now 40 years old and have become obsolete. To grasp the territory's economic future in deep sea mining, he says he wants to join other small island states at the International Seabed Authority, which he says so far excludes the French Pacific. To revive tourism, he says plans are afoot for Air Tahiti Nui to join the One World alliance, mainly to boost arrival numbers from the US."