President Emmanuel Macron presents, Friday January 19 in Cherbourg (Manche), his wishes to the French armies, marked by their hasty departure from the Sahel and faced with a multiplicity of challenges: Ukraine and the war economy, the Middle East but also the Paris Olympic Games.

During his speech scheduled for 3:15 p.m. on the naval base, according to the Élysée, the head of state "will reaffirm the principles which guide France's support for Ukraine", where he plans to go in February to the second time since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

Paris, criticized abroad for the weakness of its support, has increased its announcements of military aid to Kiev this week: around forty long-range Scalp missiles first, around fifty AASM bombs (modular air-ground weapons) per month for a year thereafter, a ramp-up in the production of 155 mm shells and the financing of twelve additional Caesar cannons.

France is "in the process of finalizing an important security agreement" with Kiev of the type concluded on January 12 between the United Kingdom and Ukraine over ten years, the head of state said on Tuesday during a press conference.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) greets French President Emmanuel Macron during a bilateral meeting on October 5, 2023 in Granada, Spain.

© Ludovic Marin, AFP (archives)

In the port of Cherbourg, the President of the Republic will visit in the morning the Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie, mobilized by the order of two patrol boats within the framework of the 2024-2030 military programming law, a historic increase of 40% compared to the previous one and presented by Emmanuel Macron during his greetings to the armies last year at the Mont-de-Marsan air base (Landes).

See alsoA French military budget of 413 billion euros over seven years: why this increase?

The president will then meet young people from the department who have completed or are starting their universal national service (SNU), which he wishes to generalize in second grade in line with the "rearmament" of society mentioned Tuesday in his wishes to the French.

End of mission in the Sahel

The last French soldiers left Niger on December 22, putting an end to ten years of anti-jihadist operation in the Sahel, after being pushed out in Mali and Burkina Faso by hostile juntas.

Since then, the armies, regularly called upon to "transform", have been waiting for prospects to reorient their missions in Africa but also towards other regions: the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, the Arab-Persian Gulf or the east of the Europe.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas engulfed the Middle East, a helicopter carrier, the Dixmude, has been reconditioned into a military hospital.

Anchored in Egyptian waters, he treated “more than a thousand” Gazan civilians injured by Israeli bombings on Gaza, according to Emmanuel Macron.

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu arrives aboard the helicopter carrier Dixmude on December 31, 2023 in the Egyptian port of Al-Arish.

© Khaled Desouki, AFP (archives)

The French Navy also distinguished itself on December 9 by firing missiles for the first time in “self-defense” in the Red Sea in the face of attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels who claim to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Several European countries led by France and Italy are in discussions to send a European mission to the area to protect this crucial sea route for Europe's economic security.

The armies will also be in great demand in 2024 for the Olympic Games, which will mobilize at least 15,000 soldiers this summer.

They are looking for a solution to face retention and recruitment difficulties, including a gap of around 2,000 people in the Army.

Emmanuel Macron had already gone to Cherbourg in 2019 to officially launch the Suffren, the first in a series of six new nuclear attack submarines (SNA), more discreet and more heavily armed, considered as symbols of the strategic independence of France.

With AFP

The France 24 summary of the week

invites you to look back at the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application