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Quoted By:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/02/macron-france-nuclear-umbrella-europe/
France will bring European nations into nuclear military drills and could allow its neighbors to host nuclear-capable fighter planes for the first time, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, as growing mistrust in the United States propels once-taboo plans for the French nuclear arsenal to protect Europe.
European capitals have never gone this far in making contingencies for a homegrown nuclear umbrella independent of U.S. guarantees. Macron’s announcements, in a speech at a military base that hosts France’s nuclear submarines, amount to the first key steps toward developing a European deterrent.
Some of Macron’s predecessors in the Élysée Palace had resisted extending the French nuclear umbrella further across Europe, and other European nations were even more reluctant, for fear of alienating the United States, which possesses a far larger atomic arsenal.
But as a more militarized, polarized world has prompted an increasing number of nations to eye nuclear weapons — and as President Donald Trump has injected tension into the transatlantic relationship — Macron is now going further than any French president in negotiating with other European leaders on extending France’s protection.
France will bring European nations into nuclear military drills and could allow its neighbors to host nuclear-capable fighter planes for the first time, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, as growing mistrust in the United States propels once-taboo plans for the French nuclear arsenal to protect Europe.
European capitals have never gone this far in making contingencies for a homegrown nuclear umbrella independent of U.S. guarantees. Macron’s announcements, in a speech at a military base that hosts France’s nuclear submarines, amount to the first key steps toward developing a European deterrent.
Some of Macron’s predecessors in the Élysée Palace had resisted extending the French nuclear umbrella further across Europe, and other European nations were even more reluctant, for fear of alienating the United States, which possesses a far larger atomic arsenal.
But as a more militarized, polarized world has prompted an increasing number of nations to eye nuclear weapons — and as President Donald Trump has injected tension into the transatlantic relationship — Macron is now going further than any French president in negotiating with other European leaders on extending France’s protection.
