Macron Orders More French Nuclear Warheads and Opens Talks With Allies

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France will increase its nuclear arsenal and allow nuclear-capable aircraft to be stationed temporarily in allied countries, a shift in French deterrence policy. Speaking at the Ile Longue submarine base, he said, “I ordered an increase in the number of nuclear warheads in our arsenal,” according to Al Jazeera. The Associated Press, whose report was carried by PBS NewsHour, said it is the first increase since at least 1992.

Macron gave no figure. France is estimated to have about 290 warheads, the world’s fourth-largest arsenal, according to Al Jazeera, and it will stop publishing figures on the stockpile. The AP said the arsenal is below 300 warheads.

For the first time, France will provide for “the temporary deployment of elements of our strategic air forces to allied countries,” Macron said, in the AP’s translation. Countries in talks with Paris are Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark, the AP reported. Allies could take part in French deterrence exercises, and their conventional forces could join France’s nuclear activities.

He drew a firm line on control. No other nation would share in decisions on using French nuclear weapons, he said, and he ruled out German Air Force planes carrying French nuclear bombs, an idea Chancellor Friedrich Merz had floated, the AP said. Macron and Merz cited deeper integration of deterrence, including German conventional participation in French nuclear exercises. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the plan on X, and the Netherlands described its talks as a supplement to NATO deterrence rather than a replacement, the AP reported.

Macron placed the move in a darker security picture. “To be free, one needs to be feared,” he said, adding that “this is not about entering into any kind of arms race,” according to Al Jazeera. He cited Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s military buildup and arms expansion by India, Pakistan and North Korea, and warned that the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran could spread to Europe’s borders. The AP said the speech had been scheduled before the latest fighting in Iran.

Critics were quick to object. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, warned the plan could cost billions of euros, undermine France’s Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and be read by Russia as a major provocation, the AP reported. Al Jazeera noted that allies worry a win by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in next year’s presidential election could weaken European cooperation on the issue.