Macron reopens debate on European nuclear umbrella after Trump-Zelensky showdown
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to “open the discussion” on a possible future European nuclear deterrent if Europe wanted to move towards “greater autonomy” in its defence capabilities.
“I am available to open this discussion…if it allows [us] to build a European force,” Macron told Portuguese TV RTP in an interview he posted on X on Saturday. “There has always been a European dimension to France’s vital interests within its nuclear doctrine.”
Macron’s comments came as Europe grapples with US President Donald Trump’s willingness to embrace Russian diplomacy and the implications of an extraordinary clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump at the White House on Friday.
The French president’s media blitz came on the eve of a meeting on the Ukraine war in London bringing together Zelensky and more than a dozen European leaders.
Macron proposed a strategic dialogue with European countries that do not have nuclear weapons.
France and Britain are the only European countries with a nuclear arsenal.
“We have a shield, they don’t. And they can no longer depend on the American nuclear deterrent. We need a strategic dialogue with those who don’t have it, and that would make France stronger,” Macron told Le Parisien newspaper.
Germany’s likely next leader, Friedrich Merz, has suggested that Britain and France could “share” their nuclear weapons in the future.
In an interview with the weekly, Journal du Dimanche, Macron said it would take between five and 10 years to build up an autonomous European defence independent of NATO.
He also warned that if the US were to conclude an agreement with Russia “without the Europeans around the table… it would be a rupture within the alliance”.
“The French nuclear deterrent must remain a French nuclear deterrent,” she said as she visited the Paris Agriculture Fair on Saturday. “It must not be shared, let alone delegated.”
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu reiterated Macron’s stance that France’s vital interests include a “European dimension”, but also that it was under the exclusive control of the French head of state.
“Our nuclear deterrent is French, and it will remain so: from the design and production of our weapons, to their implementation by decision of the President of the Republic,” he said on X.
“It protects the vital interests of France, which the head of state alone can define.”
Macron calls for ‘calm’ after Trump-Zelensky clash
Macron on Saturday spoke to Zelensky and Trump after their White House clash, his office said Saturday.
The French president said he called for “calm” between the two leaders. In his interviews with French media, Macron said everyone should “return to calm, respect… so we can move forward… because what is at stake is too important”.
Macron said any US “disengagement” in Ukraine was “not in its interests”, as forcing Kyiv to “sign a ceasefire without security guarantees” would see “its capacity to deter Russia, China and others evaporate the same day”.
On whether he would speak with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, as he did in the early days of the war, Macron replied that he would “not rule it out” but would only do so “at the opportune moment”.
