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French Polynesia MP Reacts To Trump Election
Patrick Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific Desk
Tourism and the environment are among the concerns raised by French Polynesian MP Tepuaraurii Teriitahii in reaction to the reelection of Donald Trump.
Teriitahii, from the Tapura Huiraatira party, said she was mostly concerned at the potential impact the US election result would have on key issues such as tourism and the environment.
"This has a direct impact on us, because most of the tourists we receive come from the United States," she told public broadcaster Polynésie la 1ère.
"But if they feel unsafe in their country and they are not in tune with their President, they will have difficulty travelling and this can have direct consequences on tourism."
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In 2023, statistics showed that of the 305,000 visitors to French Polynesia, 46 percent came from North America, 30 percent from mainland France, and 11 percent from the rest of Europe.
Those tourism arrivals had an impact of approximately US$1 billion on the local economy.
Concerns about environment
Another concern voiced by Teriitahii was on the US's future contribution to the protection of the environment and the fight against adverse effects of climate change.
"President Trump is not someone who fights for the preservation of the environment," she said.
"So this can also be a concern for us, because of all the countries in the Pacific, we are the ones who pay the consequences of the pollution from the big countries of this world."
During his campaign, Trump made no secret that under his leadership, the US would push for unrestricted production and consumption of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal.
Specific to French Polynesia, the US is part of an international programme, CRIOBE, based on Moorea island (near the main island of Tahiti), which monitors and studies coral ecosystems.
SPC holds top meeting in Papeete
Trump's victory also came as the Nouméa-based Pacific Community (SPC), the oldest regional inter-governmental organisation, was holding its 54th Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) meeting in Papeete from 5 to 6 November, with representatives from 27 Pacific countries and territories in attendance.
In the Pacific region, SPC is regarded as an example of multilateralism, with fluctuating engagement and support from the US over the past three decades.
Originally called the South Pacific Commission (a name that remains in the acronym), SPC was founded in 1947 by the six post-World War II Pacific Islands administering powers (Australia, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America).
Many of its programmes also focus on fighting and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change.
SPC is also at the origin of emblematic Pacific islands cultural and sports events such as the Festival of Pacific Arts, the Pacific Games or the Pacific Youth Festival.
Diplomatic, military, and defence cooperation
Since 2023, France's Asia-Pacific naval command, located in Papeete, has also operated a noticeable rapprochement with the US in terms of diplomatic, military, and defence cooperation.
This followed a major French Pacific tour of the Paris-based US Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer, in late October 2023, in both French Polynesia and New Caledonia.
During her talks with a large panel of authorities, she invoked the "numerous vital stakes" in French Polynesia and the rest of the Pacific islands, as well as the "indefectible links" and worldwide efforts to "preserve security and prosperity" and to "maintain international order for a free and open Pacific region".
President Moetai Brotherson at the time also hailed the US decision for installing several Google undersea cables, making French Polynesia a leading and crucial Pacific internet hub.
Closer links with US 7th Pacific Fleet Command
Earlier in October 2023, there was another significant Tahiti encounter: US Navy's Seventh fleet commander vice admiral Karl Owen Thomas was in French Polynesia for three days (3-6 October 2023) as part of high-level talks with Tahiti-based Commodore Geoffroy d'Andigné, then-commander of French Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific and French Polynesia.
Since then, although French President Macron's version of the "Indo-Pacific" is advocating for a "third way", officially not taking sides either with China or the United states, there has been increasing cooperation and information exchange between France and the Japan-based 7th US fleet, where, over the past year, a French Navy officer is now permanently attached.
The US 7th fleet, based at Yokosuka (Japan), is currently the largest of the forward-deployed US fleets, with 50 to 70 ships, 150 aircraft and 27,000 sailors and Marines.
Its area of responsibility includes the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans.
The meeting with the US 7th fleet top brass delegation focused on military humanitarian aid in the Pacific region under the lines of "interoperability" and coordination, particularly when natural disasters affect Pacific Island States.
In terms of assistance to the Pacific region, French, Australian and New Zealand armies are also following the same principles of a multilateral, coordinated command under a so-called "FRANZ" pact signed in 1992.
US Coastguards back in the Pacific's P-QUAD
In recent months, as part of a re-engagement policy aimed at reinforcing its presence in the Pacific and based on multilateralism, the US government Coastguards was added to the FRANZ tripartite pact, which is now called "P-QUAD" (for Pacific Quadrilateral Defence Coordination Group).
The "P-QUAD" recently took part with all its components (including the US) to the latest opus of regional exercise "Kurukuru24", under the supervision of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) with a special emphasis on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing over an area of about 21 million square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean.
The exercise lasted two weeks, during the second half of October 2024.
Apart from key sea and air assets and personnel from the Pacific QUAD, it also involved the participation of the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
"There were over 196 vessel contacts during the operation using air, surface and remote-sensing platforms, with a total of 89 boardings in port and at sea. Over 2000 detections were picked up on satellite scans," the FFA noted in a statement.
Warnings from French Pacific Naval Commander
The position of Pacific French Naval Commander for the whole Asia-Pacific (ALPACI) also cumulates the role of Superior Commandant (COMSUP) of French armed forces stationed in French Polynesia (FAPF, an estimated 900 military personnel).
Commodore Geoffroy d'Andigné, while posted in French Polynesia as ALPACI, mentioned on several occasions Chinese Navy vessels had been sighted in the French Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), both in New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
"At the end of 2022, the Chinese (navy) approached our EEZ in French Polynesia and in New Caledonia," he said in an interview in September 2023.
He further analysed these Chinese incursions in French Pacific EEZs as "a way for them to tell us they are an ocean-sailing navy".
"It signals something for which we have to prepare.We are in a world where tensions are rising. We have to anticipate this capacity and manage this area."
D'Andigné was replaced in August 2024 by Commodore Guillaume Pinget, 51, a former Commander of French aircraft-carrier Charles de Gaulle.
Chinese test missile
More recently, on 25 September 2024, China fired an "inert load" intercontinental ballistic missile which ended its course 700 kilometres away from French Polynesia's Marquesas Islands.
China said it had given prior notice to Pacific powers such as France, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Brotherson said at the time: "But what this launch really points out is all this tension in the Pacific area."
"We all know these two superpowers (US and China) are there, observing each other, gauging each other, testing each other. And we, in the middle of all this, are like a grain of rice in the ocean," he told local media.
Beijing's defence ministry said the launch was part of routine training by the People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force, which is in charge of conventional and nuclear missile operations, and was not aimed at any country or target.
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