New Caledonia

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Country Name

New Caledonia, or Nouvelle-Calédonie (French).

Location

New Caledonia is an overseas territory of France and a part of Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

It is situated to the south of the Equator and to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn; and is geographically positioned both in the Southern and Eastern hemispheres of the Earth. The archipelago is located to the east of Australia; to the north of New Zealand and to the west of Fiji and Vanuatu.

The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea.

Capital

Nouméa.

Flag

The flag of New Caledonia was adopted on 13 July 2010. The flag of New Caledonia is composed of three horizontal stripes of Blue, Red & Green colors charged with a yellow disc outlined in black and defaced with a black flèche faîtière which represents the spirit of Kanak culture.

The blue represents both the sky and the ocean surrounding New Caledonia, the red represents the blood shed by the Kanaks in their struggle for independence, socialism, and unity, and the green represents the land itself and by extension, the ancestors buried within it.