For the Pacific Islands, climate change, geopolitics and security have often been the bread and butter of any summit.

But at this year’s Pacific Island Forum Leader’s Meeting - the region’s biggest diary event - there was another hot topic thrown into the mix: that of New Caledonia and the unrest that hit the French overseas territory back in May.

A controversial French proposal to extend voting rights to people who had lived on the islands for more than 10 years sparked deadly protests. Eleven people have since died – nine civilians and two French gendarmes - and there are still French police on the ground.

President Emmanuel Macron visited New Caledonia and, in June, halted the reform. But tensions remain high, with a growing push towards independence among the Indigenous Kanaks, who make up 41% of the population.

The French have said they want to set the record straight. They were on a PR mission in Tonga, where leaders from all 18 island nations and territories gathered this past week, including New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou.

But small island nations were sceptical - the violence in New Caledonia had seen support for the French wane. And many saw it as an attempt by France to hold on to a strategic part of the world where the US and China were fighting for sway.

“We’ve seen lots of nice press about the French delegation throughout this week,” Véronique Roger-Lacan, France’s ambassador to the Pacific, said on Thursday, breaking into an ironic laugh.

She was holding a press briefing that had been heavily publicised, her team consistently encouraging media to attend. She made it clear they were there to answer questions and show transparency in what had been a bruising few months not just for New Caledonia but for France’s reputation in the region.

The French delegation attended as a "dialogue partner" - one of 21 such countries with interests in the region, inlcuding Washington and Beijing.

As an overseas French territory, New Caledonia's defence, foreign affairs and policing are coordinated by France. To many here, it looked like France was chaperoning the pro-independence leader.

“Being a country in the Pacific we can feel that we are part of a community of challenges,” François-Xavier Léger, the French Ambassador to Fiji, said at the briefing. And before that, Ambassador Roger-Lacan said that "New Caledonia is France".

These comments ruffled feathers at the forum, where there was much discussion of decolonisation and independence.

“In making this kind of statement, it’s not really helping the discussion,” said Reverend Billy Wetewea, a pastor at the Protestant Church of Kanaky who also attended the forum.

Reverend Wetewea has worked with many of the Kanaky youth in New Caledonia who led the protests. “I don’t justify the violence, but I think it can be explained through social dynamics,” he said, adding that years of inequality in education, health and social issues had taken their toll.