President Emmanuel Macron will celebrate Christmas a little early.
The football World Cup barely over, on a defeat of France in the final against Argentina, the Head of State joins this Monday the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle off Egypt for the traditional Christmas party with the troops.
Emmanuel Macron will express, in the evening, in front of the sailors, his "confidence and his support" for the armed forces and will "be accountable" for the mission of the Charles-de-Gaulle, indicate the services of the presidency.
He will sleep aboard this steel giant before joining Jordan on Tuesday.
The Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier participates both in strengthening the defense and deterrence posture of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) against Russia, against the background of the war in Ukraine, and to the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.
NATO's eastern border rather than the Sahel
“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 largest building in the French Navy, which left Toulon (Var) on November 15, is accompanied by frigates, tankers, a nuclear submarine and maritime patrol aircraft.
Read also48 hours aboard the “Charles-de-Gaulle” aircraft carrier
For the previous Christmases of the troops, Emmanuel Macron had gone 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.
3,000 soldiers in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso
France also carries out security missions in the Black Sea with naval air assets.
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 the terrorist nebula 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.
Paris also does not exclude 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.