France to expand nuclear arsenal, French president says : NPR
French President Emmanuel Macron said France would increase its nuclear arsenal and allow the temporary deployment of its nuclear planes in other European countries.
TO MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
France announced it would increase the size of its nuclear arsenal for the first time in decades and step up nuclear weapons cooperation with eight European allies, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland. NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports that the new strategy comes as Russia becomes more aggressive and the United States withdraws from the continent.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Standing in front of a massive nuclear submarine at a base in Brittany, French President Emmanuel Macron announced what he called France’s new advanced deterrence doctrine.
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MACRON: (speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: “We need to strengthen our nuclear deterrent against a combination of threats and rethink our strategy with the European continent in mind,” he said. “We are living in an era with enormous risks, which justify a toughening of our model. The most serious threat to Europe,” Macron said, “is the long and cruel war that Russia is waging against Ukraine.”
Doubts about the Trump administration’s commitment to European defense also motivated this change. For decades, American nuclear weapons protected the continent. Macron’s speech comes as a new war rages in the Middle East. France and Great Britain are the only European countries, besides Russia, to possess nuclear weapons.
ALAIN BAUER: It is the only free and independent nuclear power in Europe. Even the British are under American control.
BEARDSLEY: It’s defense and security expert Alain Bauer.
BAUER: For the first time, we are not reducing our powers, but we are expanding them in number, in strength, by modernizing ourselves. And we’ll probably expand it in how we can use it.
BEARDSLEY: Macron said France had consulted with the United States and NATO and that the measures were compatible with existing systems. Joint exercises are due to begin this year, but the French president will remain the only one with his finger on the nuclear button.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
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