The football World Cup barely over, on a defeat of France in the final against Argentina, Emmanuel Macron joined the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle on Monday off Egypt for the traditional Christmas party with the troops.
The Head of State is flying directly from Doha to Egypt from where he will board the flagship of the French Navy.
Emmanuel Macron will express Monday evening in front of the sailors of the aircraft carrier his
"confidence and his support"
for the armed forces and will
"be accountable"
for the mission of Charles de Gaulle, indicated the Elysée.
He will sleep aboard this steel giant before joining Jordan on Tuesday.
“Strategic agility”
The Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier participates both in strengthening NATO's defense and deterrence posture against Russia, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, and in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.
“It really is a tool for strategic agility.
Depending on the evolution of the situation, it can switch from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean”
, underlines the French presidency.
The biggest building of the French Navy, which left Toulon on November 15, is accompanied by frigates, oil tankers, a nuclear submarine and maritime patrol planes.
Read also Presidential 2022: how Emmanuel Macron wants to strengthen “resilience” and the “army-nation link”
For the last Christmas of the troops, Emmanuel Macron went to Africa (Chad in 2018, Ivory Coast in 2019).
In 2020 and 2021, he had to give it up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, relations had also deteriorated sharply with the junta in power in Mali, where the head of state had planned to go.
France has since partly reoriented its military presence on the eastern front of NATO, in the face of the Russian threat, and reduced the sails in the Sahel where it put an end to the anti-terrorist operation Barkhane.
Since the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, it has been leading a mission in Romania, at the forefront of the Ukrainian conflict, where it has deployed 900 men, around twenty armored infantry fighting vehicles (VBCI) and thirteen tanks Leclerc.
French fighter planes also regularly contribute to securing the skies of Poland and the Baltic countries.
France also carries out security missions in the Black Sea with naval air assets.
More discreet presence Sahel
In the Sahel, the French army left Mali in August, after nine years of presence, pushed by the ruling junta which is now working - even if it denies it - with the sulphurous Russian paramilitary group Wagner.
However, it continues to fight against jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, which are gradually extending their activities to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.
The French force now includes 3,000 soldiers in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, after having counted up to 5,500 men at the height of its deployment.
Read alsoIn Burkina Faso, the junta is tempted to link up with Wagner's mercenaries
Paris also does not rule out the departure of French special forces based in Burkina Faso, the scene of anti-French demonstrations in November and which would have concluded "an arrangement" with the Wagner group, according to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
On December 15, the last French soldiers deployed in the Central African Republic also left the country, which has been plagued by a civil war since 2013 and which also uses the Wagner group.
