Why the scattered islands are on the coronary heart of the discussions between France and Madagascar | EUROtoday

C ‘is a small territory, no greater than the Bermuda. And but, he concentrates a sure consideration with the go to of Emmanuel Macron to Madagascar, this Wednesday, April 23. While no French president had gone there since Jacques Chirac in 2005, this can be a possibility to pay specific consideration to the fragile topic of the scattered islands.

Located within the Indian Ocean, they had been administratively connected to Madagascar when it turned a French colony, in 1896. But, simply earlier than Malagasy independence, on June 28, 1960, these islands had been positioned below the authority of the Overseas Ministry and below the administration of the prefect of Reunion.

Read too The new geopolitics of the Indian OceanA standing which has been the topic of a number of developments: in 2005, their administration was transferred to the upper administrator of French southern and antarctic lands; In 2007, they turned the fifth district of this abroad group in France. They are made up of 5 tiny tropical islands and really removed from one another, wonderful, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India, in addition to Tromelin, north of Reunion.

But, since 1960, the Malagasy has been contesting the sovereignty of France and claiming to be returned to them by this territory. However, the scattered islands are an necessary financial asset: due to their place, France controls greater than half of the floor of the Mozambique canal, which is wealthy in hydrocarbon and fishery reserves and is a strategic crossroads of worldwide maritime transport.

Biodiversity, a diplomatic weight

Indo-public house is residence to 93 % of the French unique financial zone (ZEE), the second on the earth with 11 million sq. kilometers. It will contribute to round 60 % of world GDP by 2030, and its significance for France is barely rising. Especially because it has to face competitors from China, which invested the realm massively, as is Russia, India and the United States.

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At TF1 Info, Cyrille Poirier Coutansais, director of the Research Department of the Navy Strategic Studies Center, explains that “these islands are mainly biodiversity reserves, which counts in the diplomatic weight of France”. They function a reference to measure the affect of upheavals resulting from man and local weather.

Read too To nice wonderful, Emmanuel Macron turns into the cantor of biodiversityThe scattered islands will subsequently be “mentioned” with the target of relaunching the blended fee on the way forward for the archipelago initiated in 2019, the Élysée introduced. Paris favors “co -management”. Malagasy sovereignists, conversely, need President Andry Rajoelina to benefit from this go to to place the query of the retrocession on the desk, just like the one which had been obtained from the British by Mauritius for the Chagos archipelago in 2024.