Nuclear tests, health pass, military strategy, climate change. President Emmanuel Macron begins this Saturday his first trip to French Polynesia with a busy schedule.

The head of state had to postpone a trip to French Polynesia scheduled for mid-April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has not made any trip to overseas territories since the start of the crisis health of Covid-19.

The last presidential visit to this Pacific archipelago was that of François Hollande in February 2016.

Visit to the hospital

Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic will occupy an important place in this three-day trip.

The Head of State also reserves his first visit to the French Polynesia Hospital Center where he will go "to meet caregivers", said the Elysee, while a demonstration against the health pass is scheduled for this Saturday morning in Papeete.

The French state has provided more than 224,000 doses of vaccine to French Polynesia, 226,000 to New Caledonia and 18,000 to Wallis and Futuna.

The Elysée ensures that the President "will of course have a look" at his two other French territories in the Pacific, which are each experiencing an important moment, with the third self-determination consultation scheduled for December 12, 2021 in New Caledonia and the celebration on July 29 of the 60th anniversary of the status of Overseas Territory in Wallis and Futuna.

These two communities are currently "Covid Free", and visiting them would involve quarantine which is "not compatible with a presidential trip," said the Elysee.

As the Head of State could not respond to the invitation launched by the authorities of Wallis and Futuna, a delegation will come to meet him in Polynesia to have a "special interview" on Tuesday.

Indo-Pacific strategy

The South Pacific is indeed of strategic importance for France, and Emmanuel Macron "will have the opportunity to discuss the Indo-Pacific strategy and the positioning that France wishes to hold in this polarizing space", according to the Elysee.

At the end of June, the French Air Force deployed three Rafale fighter planes, two MRTT A330 Phénix refueling planes and two A400M transport devices to Tahiti, demonstrating its ability to deploy its planes on the other side of the world in less 48 hours.

Climate crisis

The President of the Republic also intends to take advantage of the trip to discuss the risks of climate change for the archipelago, which is vulnerable to rising oceans and cyclones.

The President will visit the island of Hiva Oa to support the Marquesas' candidacy for UNESCO World Heritage listing, and to the Manihi atoll in the Tuamotu where he will visit a hybrid power plant (photovoltaic / diesel) which facilitated the electrification of the atoll.

Dialogue around nuclear tests

The trip was preceded at the beginning of July by a round table on the consequences of nuclear tests in Polynesia which brought together a Polynesian delegation led by President Edouard Fritch, and the Ministers of Health, the Armed Forces and Overseas.

"French Polynesia has greatly contributed to the construction of our deterrent force and we must assume all the consequences, human, societal, health, environmental and economic", then declared Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister Delegate for Memory and the Elders fighters.

"The President of the Republic will be keen, during this trip, to promote this close and transparent dialogue by encouraging the rapid and concrete implementation of several actions, both on the issue of memory with the opening of archives and on questions of individual compensation ”, according to the Elysee.

At the end of his trip, and after a speech, Emmanuel Macron will chair the Council of Ministers by videoconference from Papeete, before taking the plane.

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