Macron, Carney to visit French islands after Trump's map post / Photo: © POOL/AFP
Macron, Carney to visit French islands after Trump's map post
The leaders of France and Canada will next week visit France's North Atlantic territory of Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon to underscore their support for national borders in the face of Donald Trump's territorial ambitions, Paris said Sunday.
The US president on Monday posted an image to social media with a map of North America in which Canada, Greenland and Mexico, much of central America and the Caribbean, as well as Iceland, were coloured in with the US flag.
The image also encompassed several French overseas territories, such as Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will make a symbolic visit to Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon to underscore that their countries share "the same values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for the sovereignty of nations", the Elysee said.
Macron was set to visit the territory on September 19-21, with Carney joining the French leader on September 20.
"In a world marked by the return of power politics, geopolitical tensions and new forms of dependency, France and Canada share a common ambition: to work together, and with all countries that share these values, to strengthen their capacity to make decisions and act independently," the Elysee said.
The three islands of the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, located about 20 kilometres (12 miles) off Canada's Atlantic coast, is home to around 6,000 people.
Macron will stop there on his way to New York, where he is due to attend the UN General Assembly.
It would be the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister to the archipelago, the French presidency said.
The territory has previously been the scene of tensions with the United States during World War II, when France was under German occupation.
In 1941, General Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces seized Saint-Pierre and Miquelon from the collaborationist Vichy regime, despite opposition from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, which had sought to maintain existing arrangements with Marshal Philippe Petain's government.
The last visit by a French president to the strategically located islands, some 4,300 kilometres from mainland France, was by Francois Hollande in 2014.
Macron is also set to address climate change affecting the territory.
The village of Miquelon has started moving inland to escape the growing threat of sea-level rise, in what is widely regarded as France's first climate-driven community relocation.
(O.Zhukova--DTZ)
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