Thursday 11 September 2014, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Nouméa, New Caledonia. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community today had the pleasure of hosting Mme Cynthia Ligeard, President of the Government of New Caledonia, who visited the Organisation’s Headquarters for a working session with SPC Senior Management.
It was the first time that a serving New Caledonian Head of Government had come to the SPC for a bilateral meeting on developing and strengthening the relationship between the oldest international organisation in the Pacific and New Caledonia. The meeting expressed a shared commitment to consolidating the ties between the SPC and its host country. 
The meeting also demonstrated that the partnership extends well beyond the Joint Country Strategy framework, defining the technical dimension of the cooperation between the Pacific Community and the country concerned, by forming a genuine bond facilitating New Caledonia’s regional integration and enhancing support from New Caledonia to the Pacific Islands through joint programmes with the SPC.
For Colin Tukuitonga “the relationship between the SPC and New Caledonia is unique: the SPC does provide development services to New Caledonia in various areas, but New Caledonia also makes a big contribution to the SPC and the region through its contribution to our programmes and by hosting us here in Nouméa. The SPC is obviously an international organisation, but it is also an integral part of the landscape in New Caledonia. Our Organisation has been part of New Caledonia’s history for 65 years now and I am really proud that it is a meeting place for the whole Pacific here on New Caledonian soil”.
2014 marks the 65th anniversary of the presence of the SPC’s Headquarters in Nouméa, New Caledonia.