ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Caroline Gravelat analyses France’s security cooperation in the Pacific Islands region and calls for France to ‘reimagine its place in the Pacific’. Gravelat considers whether France is part of the Pacific, with the answer potentially depending on whether that question is asked in Nouméa, Papeete, Mata-Utu or Paris. In this regard, she highlights the importance of New Caledonia and French Polynesia joining the Pacific Islands Forum in 2016. Gravelat also emphasises the level of HADR exercises and support provided by France to the broader region, as well as France’s role in the Quadrilateral Defence Coordination Group. Gravelat acknowledges that France faces several challenges, including controversy over the political future of New Caledonia. Accordingly, Gravelat concludes by arguing that France needs to ‘reimagine its place in the Pacific region’.
