When French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a “historic” agreement had been reached with New Caledonia, describing it as a compromise between sovereignty and unity, it was easy to read the headlines as a win for diplomacy. Paris hailed the deal as a milestone, one that retains the island territory within the French Republic, while granting it the new label of “The State of New Caledonia.” But scratch beneath the surface, and what emerges is not so much a path forward as a carefully packaged detour, one that leaves fundamental questions about decolonization unresolved.

At its heart, the agreement attempts to thread a near-impossible needle: to create a new constitutional status for New Caledonia that satisfies both pro-independence Kanak leaders and loyalist politicians who insist on continued integration with France. The proposed framework, still lacking full ratification, states that New Caledonia will remain part of France but preserve its right to self-determination. That phrase, “right to self-determination”, has been at the core of the........

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