By SYLVIE CORBET
L’ILE LONGUE, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that France would allow the temporary deployment of its nuclear-armed aircraft to allied countries as part of its new nuclear strategy.
Macron said the new posture would “provide for the temporary deployment of elements of our strategic air forces to allied countries,” but said there would be no sharing of decision-making with any other nation regarding the use of the nuclear weapons.
Talks about such arrangements have started with Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark, Macron said during a speech at a military base at L’Ile Longue in northwestern France that hosts the country’s ballistic missile submarines.
He also said France will increase its number of nuclear warheads from the current level of below 300, in the first such increase since at least 1992, but he did not give a figure for how many.
“I have decided to increase the numbers of warheads of our arsenal,” Macron said. “My responsibility is to ensure that our deterrence maintains — and will maintain in the future — its assured destructive power,” Macron said.
Macron’s speech was aimed at spelling out how French nuclear weapons fit into Europe’s security amid concerns raised on the continent by recurring tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump.
European leaders have voiced growing doubts about U.S. commitments to help defend Europe under the so-called nuclear umbrella, a policy long intended to ensure that allies — particularly NATO members — would be protected by American nuclear forces in the event of a threat.
France is the only nuclear power in the European Union.
“If we had to use our arsenal, no state, however powerful, could shield itself from it, and no state, however vast, would recover from it,” Macron said.
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FILE – French Marine officers wait atop “Le Vigilant” nuclear submarine at L’Ile Longue military base, near Brest, Brittany, July 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool, File)
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FILE – French Marine officers wait atop “Le Vigilant” nuclear submarine at L’Ile Longue military base, near Brest, Brittany, July 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool, File)
Some European nations have already taken up an offer Macron made last year to discuss France’s nuclear deterrence and even associate European partners in nuclear exercises.
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he’d had “initial talks” with Macron on the issue and had publicly theorized about German Air Force planes possibly being used to carry French nuclear bombs.
France and Britain also adopted a joint declaration in July that allows both nations’ nuclear forces, while independent, to be “coordinated.” The U.K., no longer an EU member but a NATO ally, is the only other European country with a nuclear deterrent.
Macron has consistently insisted any decision to use France’s nuclear weapons would remain only in the hands of the French president.
