French President Emmanuel Macron is leading a group of European leaders who are highly concerned that President Donald Trump may not continue to fund the proxy war in Ukraine and defend NATO if one of the members are attacked.
Speaking during a televised address on Wednesday, Macron said that “Our nuclear deterrent protects us – it is comprehensive, sovereign and French through and through.” He added, “I have decided to open the strategic debate on protection through deterrence for our allies on the European continent.”
France is one of three NATO members with nuclear weapons, and is the only state in the European Union to possess a strategic arsenal. The US stations its own nuclear weapons in a number of EU nations, however.
Macron said the discussions were needed due to the alleged threat posed by Russia, and questioned whether the US would come to Europe’s aid if there was an invasion. “Russia has become a threat to France and Europe for years to come,” he said. “I want to believe that the United States will remain by our side, but we need to be ready if that were no longer the case.”
“The future of Europe should not be decided in Washington or in Moscow,” he added.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded sharply to Macron’s remarks, calling them “stupid” while warning that Russia viewed the statement as a “threat.”
“If he considers us a threat, calls a meeting of the chiefs of general staff of European countries and Britain, says that it is necessary to prepare for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia, this is, of course, a threat,” the FM said.
President Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring the war in Ukraine to an end and to help reach a diplomatic settlement with Russia. Some NATO and EU states have interpreted Trump’s recent decision to cut off aid to Kiev as a signal that Washington would abandon Europe if it was attacked.
Macron’s latest comments marked the second in time in recent days that he suggested extending France’s nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe. The position was denounced by French opposition figure Marine Le Pen, who argued that “Sharing (nuclear) deterrence is equivalent to abolishing it,” adding, “unleashing the nuclear fire cannot be separated from national and popular legitimacy.”
Macron’s fears of a Russian attack and abandonment by Washington have been echoed by leaders across the EU. On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned, “We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times,” while German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz recently declared that Europe had “five minutes to midnight.”
EU leaders will meet on Thursday to discuss increasing military spending and new arms transfers to Ukraine. The ReArm Europe Plans calls on member states to take on additional debt and ramp up military spending by $840 billion over four years. Some of the spending will be devoted to weapons for Ukraine.
A draft text of a statement from the EU summit says that the bloc “will continue to provide Ukraine with regular and predictable financial support.” The document exposed a rift in the EU, however, as Hungary refused to sign it.
During Macron’s address, he said Paris’s support for Kiev may extend beyond arms shipments, and that French troops could be sent to Ukraine. “Our forces will be there if necessary to guarantee peace, not before a peace agreement is signed.” He added, “We will continue to meet with allies to move toward the signing of such an agreement. It’s a plan for a lasting, solid, verifiable peace agreement, which we’re working on with European partners and Ukraine.”
Foreign Minister Lavrov also had harsh words for that proposal, saying if French troops deployed to Ukraine, it would mean direct war with Russia. “This will mean not the allegedly hybrid, but direct, official, undisguised involvement of NATO countries in the war against the Russian Federation. This cannot be allowed,” he explained.
