Emmanuel Macron will announce “initiatives” on April 17 to mark the bicentennial of France’s recognition of Haiti’s independence — at the time conditioned on the payment of a heavy indemnity that hindered the development of the world’s first free Black republic — the French government declared on Thursday.

“The President of the Republic has indicated that our shared past must not be forgotten and that it is France’s responsibility to keep alive the memory of slavery both throughout its national territory and in Haiti,” declared Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot before the Senate. “Initiatives will be announced on April 17” by the French president, he added without further detail, according to an AFP dispatch.