France and Germany Move Closer on Joint Nuclear Alliance

President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would expand its nuclear arsenal and deepen cooperation with European neighbors to deter attacks, a landmark shift in its nuclear doctrine that reflects how an aggressive Russia and a retreating United States are redrawing the security contours in Europe. Mr. Macron’s speech, delivered on a day when the war with Iran threatened to spiral into a regionwide conflict, illustrated France’s willingness to take on a new role in a dangerous world. 

But the timing was also a reminder of Europe’s limitations after decades of sheltering under America’s nuclear umbrella. “What I want more than anything, as you will have understood, is for Europeans to regain control of their own destiny,” Mr. Macron declared, as he laid out what he called a strategy of “forward deterrence.” France will work more closely on nuclear security with Britain, western Europe’s other nuclear-armed country, as well as with Germany and six other countries: Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark. This will include joint exercises between France’s nuclear forces and the conventional forces of these countries, and temporarily moving nuclear warheads outside France.

“This is the most significant overhaul of French nuclear policy in 30 years,” said Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a research organization in Paris. He said it would not replace the existing American led NATO nuclear umbrella, but could act as a “backstop.” Alexander K. Bollfrass, head of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin, called it a “meaningful step in deterrence for Europe by Europeans.” But he added, “It’s also clear that Macron is not proposing to solve the problem of uncertainty over American extended deterrence.”

Speaking at a heavily fortified submarine port in Brittany, Mr. Macron said France would retain ultimate control over its nuclear arsenal. Unlike the United States or Britain, France will not join NATO’s nuclear planning group, reaffirming a tradition of French independence that dates back decades. Still, Mr. Macron described a world that had changed radically since he gave his last major speech on France’s nuclear strategy in February 2020. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Trump’s upending of the trans-Atlantic alliance, he said, had put the onus on France to update its definition of deterrence. “Six years later, we are in another strategic universe,” Mr. Macron said. “We must go to a completely different stage.”

The international campaign to abolish nukes, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, said Macron’s plan could cost upwards to a billion dollars, jeopardizing France’s international commitments.

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• Michel Rose, Reuters

• Sylvie Corbet, AP News

• Samuel Petrequin, NS News

• Ellen Francis, Washington Post