Macron calls for June talks to break deadlock over New Caledonia’s future

French President Emmanuel Macron will convene Paris talks in June to resolve tensions over New Caledonia’s future after 2023 separatist violence, his office said Tuesday. The discussions aim to address economic, political, and institutional issues for a “shared agreement” on the Pacific territory’s path forward.

French President Emmanuel Macron plans to convene talks in June in a bid to break the deadlock over the future of France’s Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where deadly separatist violence broke out last year, his office said Tuesday.

The government will invite the different sides for talks in Paris “in order to clarify economic, political and institutional issues with a view to reaching a shared agreement on the future of the archipelago,” Macron’s office said.

Read moreCrisis-hit French territory of New Caledonia on brink of economic collapse

France has sought to ease tensions in nickel-rich New Caledonia following unrest that broke out in May 2024 that killed more than a dozen people and left billions of dollars in damage.

Riots broke out over Paris’s plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanak people fear would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence.

Read more on FRANCE 24 English

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