Saint Pierre and Miquelon is “proud to be French”: Macron responds to Trump from the archipelago
“It’s obvious”, “no discussion”: Emmanuel Macron insisted, Saturday September 19, upon his arrival in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, in the middle of the North Atlantic, that this territory was indeed “French” and “attached to France”, in response to a map posted by Donald Trump which covers the entire region of the United States flag.
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“We are not going to say it every morning because people have strange ideas or say strange things,” he added upon his arrival in the small archipelago, 4,300 kilometers from Paris, for a two-day visit with strong geopolitical resonance.
The president will welcome Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Saint-Pierre on Sunday, a first in local history, a few kilometers from the Canadian coast and a few days from the Greenland Sea, a new strategic issue around the Arctic.
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“It sends a strong message,” he stressed, in the face of a thunderous American president who considers this part of the world his private preserve and regularly threatens to annex Canada, against which he is waging a merciless trade war.
Donald Trump appears to have at least temporarily put an end to his plans for Greenland on Friday by concluding a “security” agreement with Denmark on this autonomous territory of the Kingdom.
“Danish sovereignty is respected, international law is respected (…) anything that moves in the direction of appeasement is a good thing,” reacted Emmanuel Macron, refusing to comment on a possible “step back” by President Trump.
An archipelago threatened by rising waters
Looking for other sources of oil supply in the face of the surge in prices caused by the war in the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron also hopes to find alternative solutions from Canadians, large producers.
In particular, he hoped that “more (Canadian) liquefied gas would go towards the Atlantic coast” and therefore Europe and placed emphasis, more broadly, on new “cooperation prospects” with Canada.
Mark Carney, for his part, has just returned from Strasbourg where he announced on Thursday a major rapprochement between his country and the European Union, triggering new anger from the American president who promised to retaliate with sanctions.
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon: Macron and Carney want to display “the sovereignty of nations”
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Cover image: © France 24
The Head of State will also try to meet the expectations of this small archipelago of 5,800 inhabitants undermined by the end of the golden age of cod fishing, which combines high costs of living, demographic decline and climate threat.
This should result in announcements on several sensitive issues, from the relocation of the village of Miquelon, threatened by rising waters, to the rehabilitation of the port of Saint-Pierre, certain quays of which threaten to collapse.
The move from Miquelon, a titanic project on the scale of the archipelago, is preparing to enter its second phase, which requires 25 million euros, according to local elected officials.
For now, a dozen houses have been built on a new site higher up, 1.5 kilometers away, to escape the rising waters. But the project promises to be long and it is far from unanimous.
Projects in the field of space research
Emmanuel Macron will also make “announcements” on the military resources of the archipelago, where only an old patrol boat is stationed and whose replacement is slow.
Expectations remain high from Canada on fishing quotas, after the violent “cod” war in the 1980s, not to mention the dispute over the delimitation of France’s continental shelf in this area.
“The objective of this visit is to mark a new page,” said Emmanuel Macron, recalling “the very tough year”, in 1992, which sealed the fate of cod fishing in the archipelago.
Macron in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon: “A way of recalling French sovereignty”
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Cover image: © France 24
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which is seeking a new economic vocation, is now focusing on space, thanks to its geographical positioning.
The archipelago already hosts a satellite ground station for the European navigation system Galileo and two French start-ups, Skynopy and Look up, will make announcements in this area during the visit.
Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon also hopes to find itself on the route of a digital cable project which should connect Brittany to New York and which would allow it to secure data flows in the space domain.
So many investments which “show the strategic character of the island”, welcomed Emmanuel Macron.
With AFP
