France
Believing Biden
At the conclusion of US President Joe Biden’s one-week visit across the continent and to the United Kingdom, Europeans appear to believe in the need to push back against the…
New Caledonia’s third independence referendum, and the day after
The third and final self-determination referendum in New Caledonia will take place on 12 December – the date settled after a week of ministerial consultations in Paris commencing…
New Caledonia eyes final vote on independence
France is showing signs of frustration as it exerts all efforts to underline the real consequences of independence for those long-standing New Caledonian residents who will vote…
Russia vs the EU
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell visited Moscow this month intending to lodge a strong protest against the treatment of dissident Alexei…
Macron and Biden: “Friends, allied, but not aligned”
On 24 January, four days after his investiture, US President Joe Biden had his first official phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron. Commentators were quick to mention…
Artefacts paving France’s return to Africa
In November, the French Senate unanimously voted to return a small selection of pre-colonial African artefacts to Benin and Senegal that were looted by colonial forces. Benin will…
Jihadist attacks in Nice: The Tunisian connection
In the last five years, the French city of Nice has been targeted twice by jihadist terrorism. Both times the perpetrators were young men from Tunisia, the smallest country in…
New Caledonia: A vote lost, yet independence advocates claim a win
On Sunday, nearly 181,000 voters from New Caledonia, a French archipelago colonised in 1853 and just 1,500 kilometres off the cost of Australia, were called to the polls to answer…
Tackling environmental security threats in the Indian Ocean
The explosion and fire on board a supertanker off Sri Lanka this month, following closely on last month’s disastrous oil spill in Mauritius, serve as a reminder that environmental…
Another independence referendum looms in New Caledonia
New Caledonia will vote again on whether to remain within the French republic on 4 October 2020. At the last such referendum, in November 2018, the result was 56.67% against…