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Strong French Presence At Forum Summit

Tuesday: August 19, 2008

(Oceania Flash)

There will be several French delegations represented at this week's 39th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders summit, scheduled to take place in Niue.

The French metropolitan government is sending a high-powered delegation from Paris.
The delegation will be led by Nicolas Desforges, the Permanent Secretary to the French government's assistant minister for Overseas, Yves Jégo.

The French delegation also includes Paris-based French Ambassador to the Pacific, Patrick Roussel, who is also in charge of the so-called "Pacific Fund" that is dedicated to promoting better integration of the French territories in the Pacific region.

Other members of the Paris also include officials from the French Foreign Affairs Ministry's Pacific section and Wellington-based French Ambassador Michel Legras.

The French delegation, which is also this year (and since July 1st) representing the Chair of the European Union), is expected to take part in the traditional post-Forum dialogue.

French relations with the Pacific Islands Forum have intensified over the past two years and the recent "France-Oceania" summit held in Paris in June 2006 under the chairmanship of then French President Jacques Chirac.

The third such summit is also scheduled to take place sometime in August-September 2009, in Nouméa, New Caledonia, probably in the presence of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.

At the regional level, the three French Pacific countries and territories -- New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna -- are also sending significant delegations to Niue.

New Caledonia's delegation is to be led by the French Pacific territory's president of the local government, Harold Martin.

Martin will also be accompanied by his vice president, Déwé Gorodey, as well as two members of his Cabinet, Maurice Ponga [youth and sports] and Pierre Ngaiohni [vocational training].

French Polynesia's President Gaston Tong Sang is heading his territory's delegation.

Wallis and Futuna is also expected to send a delegation to Niue.

This year's Forum leaders' summit is scheduled to provide some form of response to Wallis and Futuna's recent request to change from its current observer status to that of an "associate member."

Associate member status was granted to French Polynesia and New Caledonia three years ago. Last month, a Forum mission travelled to Wallis and Futuna to assess the merits of such bid.

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