France: Emmanuel Macron plans billions in investments in the military

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Emmanuel Macron in front of soldiers: "France has and will have armies ready for the challenges of the century"

Photo: POOL / REUTERS

Russia's attack on Ukraine has caused the European understanding of security to collapse.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted with his »Zeitenwende« speech and billions for the Bundeswehr.

And partner France is also planning investments: President Emmanuel Macron wants to invest a total of around 400 billion euros in the French military budget from 2024 to 2030.

"France has and will have armies ready for the challenges of the century," Macron said in his New Year's address to the army at Mont-de-Marsan airbase in south-west France.

France must adapt to a new era in which there are a variety of threats, some old wars, others unprecedented, "between sophistication and brutal simplicity".

Macron: Secure freedom, security, prosperity

The military budget, which is about a third higher, should serve France to secure “our freedom, our security, our prosperity and our place in the world”, said Macron.

The President also called for the modernization of France's nuclear arsenal.

The military strategy should strengthen the country's role as an independent world power.

Accordingly, the budget for the military secret service is also to be increased by 60 percent.

Macron called the new budget a "transformation program" to adapt the military to potential high-intensity conflicts.

From 2019 to 2025, the military budget had totaled 295 billion.

It served to rebuild capacities where savings had been made in previous decades.

The French military is still not sure of the 400 billion.

The law is scheduled to be debated in Parliament in March.

Most recently, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg initiated a debate on member countries' defense spending.

Countries are currently supposed to spend two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, but this number could become the minimum.

Meet at Ramstein

Representatives of the NATO states and other countries supporting Ukraine are currently discussing further military aid for Ukraine at the US air base in Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin invited Ukraine supporters such as Germany and Great Britain to the conference at the largest US airbase outside the United States.

The dominant topic of the meeting is the possible delivery of main battle tanks.

Germany in particular is under pressure to give up its opposition to the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

ptz/AP/Reuters