Transcript
Although Mr Macron made a point of not expressing a view on the independence question, he said that France without New Caledonia would no longer be France.
He addressed the colonial past but above all he drew the audience away to talk about the future.
"In this part of the globe China is building its hegemony - it's not a question of raising fears but to look at the reality. China has to be a partner for this region. Its strategy of new Silk Road and its ambitions in the Pacific - we have to work with China to intensify exchanges and use the opportunities. But if don't organise ourselves, it will soon be a hegemony which will reduce our liberties, our opportunities which we will suffer."
Emmanuel Macron has spun the theme of integration into something bigger.
"I believe in this Indo-Pacific axis, I believe in this new strategy which we will have to have at the heart of our collective ambitions, and it is above all a geopolitical ambition. It's the one I outlined in Sydney three days ago. There is an axis Paris-New Delhi-Canberra, but this axis extends to Papeete to Noumea and across all our territories. It is the one which will allow us to build on a geopolitical level the neutrality of the Indo-Pacific space. From the Horn of Africa to the Americas it will allow us and our allies to take part in this great equilibrium and ensure the freedom of navigation across the seas, freedom of travel in the air and the indispensable balances in this part of the world. We have one role to play - and what we acted on with Australia - it will allow us to anchor it in our collective plans with unprecedented cooperation between governments which allows our defence and cybersecurity, our reciprocal engagement in the fight against terrorism and the organisation of our armies to preserve this neutrality to exercise the liberty of our sovereignty in this space. We have allies - India where I was in March, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines which take part in this balance, and of course Japan."
He also stressed that France was a great power with its huge maritime zone, most of which is in the Pacific.
"The United States which a few years ago regarded itself a central power in this region continues to be it on a security and strategy level but has rather turned its back these last months, by denouncing a commercial deal which it had structured and by quitting the Paris Agreement it turned its back to the fight against climate warming in this region of the globe which without doubt has the most states that risk to vanish because of the consequences of global warming."
Both anti- and pro-independence politicians welcomed his address.
Pro-independence politicians, who in the past often expressed distrust of French foreign policy, now praise not only New Caledonia's link to the Melanesian Spearhead Group but also value being a member of the Pacific Islands Forum.
In his outline, he hoped for New Caledonia to develop its agriculture to become self-sufficient in supplying its own food.
Some of the aspirations can also be seen as the failure of the colonial past.
This is Walter Zweifel.
