Macron Speech to Update Nuke Deterrence03/02 06:31

   

   PARIS (AP) -- European allies' eyes turn toward France on Monday as 
President Emmanuel Macron is set to update French doctrine on the potential use 
of nuclear weapons, in a keynote speech from the military base hosting the 
country's ballistic missile submarines.

   Macron is expected to outline France's strategy and spell out how French 
nuclear weapons fit into Europe's security amid concerns raised on the 
continent by recurring tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump over Ukraine, 
Greenland and NATO.

   The long-planned speech was maintained despite the growing conflict around 
Iran, because the current violence in the Middle East shows the importance of 
France's power and independence to face down growing threats, according to a 
French official, speaking anonymously in line with the French presidency's 
customary practices.

   European leaders have voiced growing doubts about U.S. commitments to help 
defend Europe under the so-called nuclear umbrella, a policy long intended to 
ensure that allies -- particularly NATO members -- would be protected by 
American nuclear forces in the event of a threat.

   France is the only nuclear power in the European Union. Macron's office said 
the speech is expected to build on his 2020 address on nuclear deterrence, 
delivered before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine reshaped the security 
landscape in Europe.

   No detail has been disclosed ahead of the speech.

   Some European nations have already taken up an offer Macron made last year 
to discuss France's nuclear deterrence and even associate European partners in 
nuclear exercises.

   Earlier this month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he'd had "initial 
talks" with Macron on the issue and had publicly theorized about German Air 
Force planes possibly being used to carry French nuclear bombs.

   "We have to re-articulate nuclear deterrence," Macron said at the Munich 
Security Council this month. He said France had had "a strategic dialogue" with 
Merz and with some other European leaders "in order to see how we can 
articulate our national doctrine, which is guaranteed and controlled by the 
Constitution, with special cooperation, common exercises and common security 
interests."

   France and Britain also adopted a joint declaration in July that allows both 
nations' nuclear forces, while independent, to be "coordinated." The U.K., no 
longer an EU member but a NATO ally, is the only other European country with a 
nuclear deterrent.

   Macron has consistently insisted any decision to use France's nuclear 
weapons would remain only in the hands of the French president.