Macron says France will boost its nuclear stockpile and increase cooperation with European allies, including joint exercises
France will increase its stockpile of nuclear warheads and may, for the first time, temporarily deploy them on allies’ territory, effectively broadening the country’s nuclear deterrence amid mounting doubts about the U.S. security commitment to Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France is working with eight European countries, including Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Poland, as part of a “forward deterrence” strategy that could see allies join France’s nuclear exercises.
The talks, which Macron said also include Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, and Greece, could also lead to allies supporting France’s nuclear arsenal with their conventional forces, and to France temporarily deploying its nuclear-armed jet fighters on allied territory, he added.
“This dispersal across Europe, like an archipelago of power, will complicate our adversaries’ calculus,” Macron said while standing in front of a French nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine at France’s Île Longue base off the Brittany coast.
Macron said France would alone keep full control over when and how to use its nuclear weapons. He added that France would increase its arsenal beyond an estimated 290 warheads that can be fired from Rafale jet fighters and submarines.
France will also, like the U.K., stop disclosing its number of warheads, as part of France’s doctrine of strategic ambiguity. That doctrine states that the president can order a strike to protect the country’s “vital interests” without defining any clear red lines.
“To be free, one must be feared. To be feared, one must be powerful,” Macron said.
Macron’s promise of broader cooperation and more warheads marks the most concrete signal yet that France intends to spread its nuclear deterrence more widely across the continent. French presidents dating back to conservative Jacques Chirac have said that France’s vital interests have a “European dimension,” but participation in nuclear exercises and deployment outside France offer allies a less ambiguous signal.
The updated French strategy comes as President Trump’s antagonism with Europe, along with growing threats from Russia, has prompted many European nations to reassess their reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for their security. The widening conflict with Iran only drives home how multiplying threats demand a new posture, Macron said on Monday.
France’s new forward-deterrence doctrine is intended to supplement, rather than replace, U.S. nuclear deterrence through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Macron said. Under that arrangement, the U.S. keeps tactical nuclear weapons at bases in five NATO countries.
“The goal is not to replace the U.S.,” said Héloïse Fayet, a research fellow at the French Institute of International Relations. “The idea is to provide a kind of additional life insurance to complicate the opponent’s strategic calculations,” she added.
Now the new French model could see allies getting a form of enhanced nuclear protection effectively in return for greater cooperation with France on its conventional forces, like long-range missiles.
Germany, which began talks with France last year, issued a joint statement with France on Monday saying the two countries had established a “high-ranking nuclear steering group” for strategic cooperation. Germany will participate in French nuclear exercises this year, they said, similarly to how the U.K. participated in French nuclear exercises dubbed “Poker” in December.
The agreement with Germany comes after several face-to-face meetings between Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The two leaders then tasked their defense ministers, military chiefs of staff, and foreign ministries to pursue detailed discussions.
Trump’s threats to annex Greenland have also made the situation “much more dire from the German point of view,” said Alexander Bollfrass, head of strategy, technology, and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Plans to institutionalize and operationalize the European dimension through exercises and dedicated coordinating bodies will likely be welcomed in Berlin because it gives hope that French nuclear assurances will last beyond Macron’s presidency,” he added.
For all the talk of becoming less dependent on U.S. security guarantees, some in Germany remain concerned that the nuclear rapprochement between Berlin and Paris could hasten America’s disengagement from Europe, putting Germany at heightened risk.
“Germany shouldn’t cast doubt over the fact that it counts on the American nuclear umbrella,” Norbert Röttgen, a conservative lawmaker and former German minister, said. “Germany’s nuclear protection must remain embedded in NATO.”
Macron could also face domestic opposition to his expansion of the country’s nuclear protection to European allies. Though he has said France alone would decide when to strike, some detractors have warned against changes that amount to a surrender of control.
“If Mr. Macron thinks he can give away France’s nuclear weapons to the EU, he will face impeachment proceedings for treason,” Philippe Olivier, an adviser to Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party, wrote on X last week.
