{"id":1073154,"date":"2023-06-08T03:08:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T03:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=89447"},"modified":"2023-06-08T03:08:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T03:08:30","slug":"im-not-begging-tahitis-brotherson-tells-france-in-prep-for-independence-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/08\/im-not-begging-tahitis-brotherson-tells-france-in-prep-for-independence-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m not begging\u2019, Tahiti\u2019s Brotherson tells France in prep for independence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/\"><em>RNZ Pacific<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>French Polynesia&#8217;s new President Moetai Brotherson is in Paris for wide-ranging talks with the French government and the organisers of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>His visit involves meetings with a range of ministers and officials to continue cooperation arrangements initiated by his predecessor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not here to come begging,&#8221; Brotherson said, adding that he wanted to ensure that France was helping to decrease dependence on French financial transfers by developing French Polynesia as a country with its own resources.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/05\/17\/four-women-feature-in-tahitis-new-tavini-huiraatira-government\/\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Four women feature in Tahiti\u2019s new Tavini Huira\u2019atira government<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Tahiti+politics\">Other Tahiti politics reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He told the news site <a href=\"https:\/\/outremers360.com\/bassin-pacifique-appli\/polynesie-moetai-brotherson-a-paris-pour-donner-le-ton-des-relations-avec-letat\">Outremers360<\/a> that he wants any process of self-determination to be arbitrated by the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>Restating a timeframe of up to 15 years until a referendum on independence, Brotherson said that it was not utopian.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[French] Polynesia is as big as Europe, and in terms of population, it is [the size of] Montpellier&#8221;, he said, referring to the southern French city with its 300,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>He said time needed to be taken to prepare, and by seeking independence &#8220;we will be able to take decisions with full responsibility&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, he said the preceding pro-autonomy governments had the reflex to say that in the end, if they did not make the right decisions, they would turn to &#8220;mother&#8221; France.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Support for seabed mining ban<\/strong><br \/>\nBrotherson met the State Secretary for the Sea Herve Berville who reconfirmed the French government&#8217;s support for a seabed mining ban.<\/p>\n<p>Berville also reconfirmed that such a ban would also apply to French Polynesian waters.<\/p>\n<p>Brotherson again expressed his unwavering support for next year&#8217;s Olympic surfing competition to be held in Tahiti.<\/p>\n<p>After flooding in the area last month, French Polynesian Sports Minister Nahema Temarii cast doubt on Tahiti being able to go ahead with the competition.<\/p>\n<p>However, the site manager of the Paris Olympics organising committee, as well as Brotherson, said the event would go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n<p>After becoming President last month, Brotherson will this week officially relinquish his seat in the French National Assembly, to which he was re-elected last year when his pro-independence Tavini Huira&#8217;atira for the first time won all three available Paris seats.<\/p>\n<p><em><i><span class=\"caption\">This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/span><\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_89453\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89453\" style=\"width: 680px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-89453 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Paris-gendarmes-Poly1ere-680wide.png\" alt=\"French gendarmes in Paris during Tahiti President Moetai Brotherson's official visit\" width=\"680\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Paris-gendarmes-Poly1ere-680wide.png 680w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Paris-gendarmes-Poly1ere-680wide-300x244.png 300w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Paris-gendarmes-Poly1ere-680wide-516x420.png 516w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-89453\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">French gendarmes in Paris during Tahiti President Moetai Brotherson&#8217;s official visit this week. Image: Polyn\u00e9sie 1\u00e8re screenshot APR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\"><br>\r\nThis content originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/06\/08\/im-not-begging-tahitis-brotherson-tells-france-in-prep-for-independence\/\" >Asia Pacific Report<\/a> and was authored by APR editor.  <br><\/p>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2023\/06\/08\/im-not-begging-tahitis-brotherson-tells-france-in-prep-for-independence\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RNZ Pacific French Polynesia\u2019s new President Moetai Brotherson is in Paris for wide-ranging talks with the French government and the organisers of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. His visit involves meetings with a range of ministers and officials to continue cooperation arrangements initiated by his predecessor. \u201cI\u2019m not here to come begging,\u201d Brotherson said, adding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2242,27617,6630,42772,61411,61412,108,20115,432,363,1150,50,5,42614,480,4833,49064,5957,45416,356,7,635,61413,31223,61407,42834,42652,45273,61408,5040,1696,12,31281,61409,14,59540,1633,368,15748,52524,61410,15,27150,124,61414,1743,696,54891,61415,61416,40789,46648],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073154"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1074158,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073154\/revisions\/1074158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}