France will increase its nuclear arsenal and may deploy the warheads to allied European countries for the first time, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday, marking a major overhaul of French policy.
The announcement reflected Paris’ efforts to strengthen Europe’s security independence and deterrence amid questions about Washington’s commitments to the continent.
Macron’s speech, planned long before a fresh conflict broke out in the Middle East, nevertheless “illustrated France’s willingness to take on a new role in a dangerous world,” The New York Times wrote.
For decades, France’s nuclear program “hardly excited our neighbors, who felt protected by the American umbrella,” a Les Echos journalist wrote. That those neighbors are now interested marks “a strategic turning point.”