FLNKS Unveils ‘Kanaky Agreement’ Demanding Full Independence from France

Kanaky: Kanaky (New Caledonia)'s leading pro-independence coalition, the FLNKS (Front de Lib©ration Nationale Kanak et Socialiste), presented to the public on February 3, 2025, a document titled the 'Kanaky Agreement,' which demands Kanaky's full independence from France, APA reports.

According to Azeri-Press News Agency, the 'Kanaky Agreement' serves as a political response criticizing France's restriction of the Kanak people's right to self-determination. It was drafted in reaction to the Bougainville Agreement, which was prepared at France's initiative and aims to preserve Kanaky's political future within a long-standing colonial status quo. The document articulates a clear and principled stance against the continued maintenance of a colonial governance model and institutional dependency that have prevailed in Kanaky for many years.

The Kanaky Agreement was adopted on April 26, 2025, during a congress organized by the FLNKS in Kanaky. At that congress, movement leader Christian Tein, who is imprisoned in France, conveyed to participants that independence must be determined only on the basis of a specific date and a clear political roadmap.

The agreement envisages the formation of a future Kanaky state as a secular, democratic, and sovereign republic. The document includes procedures for drafting a constitutional act and approving it by referendum, while also providing for the retention of existing institutions as temporary governance mechanisms during a transitional period. The FLNKS believes that unless France accepts an irreversible process leading to independence by 2027, dialogues and political mechanisms conducted through existing institutions cannot serve as a genuine solution. As a political response to the Bougainville Agreement, initiated by France, the document emphasizes the necessity of changing the colonial status quo that has been maintained in Kanaky for decades.

The Bougainville Agreement served to continue France's colonial administration in Kanaky under concepts such as 'renewed status,' 'expanded autonomy,' and similar frameworks. By contrast, the Kanaky Agreement explicitly calls for the abolition of the existing status quo and defines the achievement of full political sovereignty for the Kanak people as its primary objective. Whereas the Bougainville Agreement turned independence into an indefinite, long-term political process with no clear prospects, the Kanaky Agreement demands a specific date, an irreversible roadmap, and international guarantees, particularly within the framework of the United Nations. For the first time, the document openly declares that relations between France and Kanaky, after independence is achieved, should be established between two equal and sovereign states. Concepts such as autonomy and shared sovereignty are categorically rejected as forms of neocolonialism.