In addition, ni-Vanuatu politics remained polarised along linguistic lines, with francophones (who in general were also francophiles) constituting a minority in opposition against Lini's anglophone majority.

One of Lini's first foreign policy moves upon attaining office was to provide open encouragement for the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), the pro-independence movement in neighbouring New Caledonia, which remained a French territory.

In February 1981, Barak Sopé, secretary-general of Vanuatu's ruling Vanua'aku Pati, accepted an invitation to speak at the annual congress of the FLNKS.

In 1987, Vanuatu opposed a referendum held in New Caledonia on the island group's political status, and delivered a petition to the French embassy in protest.

Ni-Vanuatu official Charles Rara remained aboard to witness the vessel's protest trip to Mururoa, and shared a cabin with Fernando Pereira.

Following the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland on 10 July that same year, Lini openly accused France of having committed a "terrorist act".

Vanuatu demanded that Fiji recognise ni-Vanuatu sovereignty over the islands, stating that failure to do so would "constitute a grave blow on peace, solidarity and stability in the region".

In 1981, Vanuatu requested that the United Kingdom and France pay compensation for damages caused by the secessionist movement on Espiritu Santo the previous year.

In 1987, the ni-Vanuatu government accused France of having funded the electoral campaign of the francophone Opposition Union of Moderate Parties, in the lead-up to the 1987 general election.

Lini subsequently wrote to French President François Mitterrand and Prime Minister Michel Rocard, congratulating them on a recent electoral victory and expressing his wish for an improvement in bilateral relations.

In 1991, French academic Elise Huffer wrote that Lini had, "it seems, deliberately sought to provoke France so as to make it look responsible for all the archipelago's problems, and so as to justify a policy of submission (if not repression) of the indigenous francophone population".

Elections in 1991 saw Lini voted out of office, and the francophone, pro-French Union of Moderate Parties come to power, led by a new Prime Minister, Maxime Carlot Korman.