The Kanaky draft agreement and the APROFED draft agreement are not so far removed from each other.

The Kanaky draft agreement and the APROFED draft agreement are not so far removed from each other.

The APROFED association is contacting you again this week following the publication of the draft Kanaky agreement (see Future of New Caledonia: what does the “Kanaky agreement” proposed by the FLNKS say? ).

The text was reportedly adopted during the FLNKS convention in Waho, Yaté, on April 26, 2025.

Upon reading it, the association was able to note a large number of elements converging with its own project, of a federal nature.

Thus, as recalled on pages 1 and 2, the objective since the 1980s has always been to regain a specific and evolving status of internal autonomy , not a sudden and abrupt independence. It is even specified that, under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, the State now only exercises sovereign powers . Unfortunately, the State opposed this, demonstrating that it remained within a colonial mindset (see p. 5), leading to the radicalization of some.

The association is pleased to read on page 4 in the attractive paragraph on the successes of the Nouméa Accord , that the latter, of federal origin let us remember, made it possible to emerge from decades of tensions and violence and allowed New Caledonia to evolve in a climate of peace and political stability […] strengthening the autonomy of the country while maintaining a link with France .

It is unfortunate, as mentioned on page 5, that not all partners fully cooperated . Some acted to block the transfer of powers, even advocating for the State to regain control of certain responsibilities. It also appears that difficulties persist in enabling Pacific Islanders, and to a lesser extent other Caledonians, to access strategic positions locally, a point noted by the ALDE-NC association (see ALDE-NC Association ). This has once again brought the Kanak people and the French State face to face, in opposition as has been the case since the beginning of colonization, with a de facto collateral impact on the entire local society.

As mentioned on page 6, the Kanaky Agreement project stipulates that New Caledonia’s effective accession to sovereign state status will occur after a transition period, as also foreseen by the APROFED project, with a duration of approximately 30 years (see Solution 1: a non-sovereign Caledonian federated state with France – APROFED ). During this transitional institutional phase, the Kanaky project aims to:

– to set up a mechanism, such as a Constituent Assembly , which will allow Caledonian citizens to develop their Constitution and the institutions of the new State , which is also one of our proposals (see Federalism via a constituent assembly as a solution to the French institutional crisis – APROFED / Opinion on the State’s summary document and draft of a Caledonian Constitution by the IA – APROFED ),

– to prepare the transfer of sovereign powers (cf. For a federated state, it is necessary to recover jurisdiction over justice – APROFED ),

– to proceed with the transfer of the other powers still exercised by France ( in particular the powers of article 27 ) , which we agree to (cf. with France – APROFED ).

The only difference between our two proposals concerns the number of sovereign powers to be transferred, as the association only seeks the transfer of justice and internal security . External relations (diplomacy) are already partly handled by New Caledonia through the Nouméa Accord. Defense and currency, for us, should remain within the French sphere of influence, at least until 2053.

This situation would thus allow the territory to regain the autonomy it lost in the 60s/70s and to achieve, until the bicentenary of France taking possession of New Caledonia, what we call “small independence”.

We are sending you again below a summary of our project, which was the subject of an article in March 2025: Project overview – APROFED

Hopefully the State will take this into account in the future, which does not seem to be the case so far.

Wishing you a pleasant read and reminding you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association