Agreement demarcating the border between France and the Netherlands in the West Indies signed

Europe 1 with AFP 13:58 p.m., May 27, 2023, modified at 14:00 p.m., May 27, 2023

The France and the Netherlands signed Friday (Saturday Paris time) a historic agreement delimiting the border between the two countries on the island of Saint-Martin (West Indies), which was the subject of dispute at its eastern end. This agreement was signed for the France by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and Overseas, and for the Netherlands by Silveria E. Jacobs, Prime Minister of the autonomous government of Sint Maarten.

Objective: to facilitate the reconstruction process of the island

"This historic agreement will help facilitate the reconstruction process of the island, very severely affected by Hurricane Irma in 2017," according to the statement from the French Ministry of the Interior. It specifies "the demarcation of the border while preserving the principle of free movement of goods and persons instituted by the Concordia agreements of March 23, 1648". Finally, this agreement "also establishes a joint monitoring committee responsible for monitoring and maintaining the border".

According to Place Beauvau, it "illustrates the excellence of the friendly relations between the France and the Netherlands, eager to strengthen their trusting cooperation on the island of Saint-Martin, as well as the shared desire of the Territorial Council of Saint-Martin and the autonomous government of Sint Maarten to continue to develop their close ties and their common projects of cross-border cooperation".

The island of Saint-Martin divided in two

Gérald Darmanin is accompanied by the Minister Delegate for Overseas France, Jean-François Carenco. The two members of the government must then go to Saint-Barthélemy, the other northern island of the French West Indies. The island of Saint-Martin is divided in two, with a French overseas collectivity to the north and a state dependent on the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Maarten, to the south. However, nothing materializes the border. The signed agreement is supposed to clarify the separation at Oyster Pond, on the east coast of the island.

The marina of this marina was the subject of a sovereignty dispute because of the imprecision at this point of the delineation of the border linked to the Treaty of Concordia, signed between the French and Dutch after the departure of the Spanish. Despite the creation in late 2017 of a Franco-Dutch steering committee to coordinate reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Irma, disagreements persisted over the management of the bay. The border will now cross "the middle of the pond, giving an equal share of the water to both sides," said Sint Maarten Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs.

The agreement "will make it possible to define our border precisely and clearly" while "preserving the free movement established by the Concordia Treaty," also welcomed the president of the community of Saint-Martin, Louis Mussington. The resolution of this territorial conflict "will pave the way for a long-awaited economic and urban recovery" by the inhabitants of this territory with a high poverty rate, he said in a statement.