President Emmanuel Macron urged Europeans on Friday to develop a "greater capacity for action" in the face of world disorders, with a means: by participating fully in future negotiations on arms control and by joining in a "strategic dialogue "on the role of French nuclear deterrence.
Long awaited speech
Europeans cannot "confine themselves to a role of spectators" in the face of the nuclear arms race in which the Old Continent risks being the theater again, he launched during a speech on defense strategy and French deterrence before a crowd of French officers and defense attachés, in the presence of Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian (Foreign Affairs) and Florence Parly (Armies).
"The last decade has seen the strategic, political, economic, technological, energy and military balances largely challenged and we see today dawn again what could undermine the peace acquired after so many tragedies on our continent", he warned in an overview of the post-Cold War upheavals.
This eagerly awaited speech - which lasted an hour and a quarter - is an imposed exercise for each French president, army chief and master of the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, considered by France as the keystone of its defense strategy and the ultimate guarantee of his vital interests.
Arsenal "less than 300" heads
France is the only country in the European Union that has had nuclear weapons since leaving the United Kingdom. The French nuclear forces "strengthen the security of Europe by their very existence and in this respect have an authentically European dimension", he stressed. "France's vital interests now have a European dimension", which the threat of the use of nuclear fire aims precisely to defend.
Without going so far as to propose a shared deterrence - a very sensitive subject if not taboo - the Head of State proposed to European partners who so wished to join in the "exercises of the French deterrent forces". Angela Merkel's German conservative official pleaded Monday for the EU to have its own nuclear deterrent in the future, suggesting that France's nuclear arsenal be pooled.
France, which advocates a "strictly sufficient" deterrent, has "reduced the size of its arsenal, today less than 300 nuclear weapons," said Emmanuel Macron, praising the "exemplary record" of the country in terms of disarmament.