Wallis and Futuna

Wallis and Futuna is a French overseas collectivity in the South Pacific, lying among Tuvalu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Tokelau. As part of France, it falls under French sovereignty and is ultimately tied to Paris for foreign affairs, defense and citizenship, while retaining a distinctive local structure that includes three customary Polynesian kingdoms alongside French administration. Its tiny population and remoteness make it a minor but symbolically meaningful piece of France's Indo-Pacific presence, a region where great-power competition between the West and China has intensified.