France to discuss expanding 'nuclear umbrella'
European countries should prepare for a situation where the US does not come to their defense, the French president has warned.
RT reported on March 6 that President Emmanuel Macron said that France would consider using its nuclear arsenal to protect its European allies. He made this statement in the context of NATO members' growing concerns that the US under President Donald Trump may not protect them.
Last month, Germany's future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, suggested that Britain and France could expand their nuclear shield to protect Germany, particularly amid tensions between Russia and NATO over Ukraine. He said such proposals had "always failed to get a response" in the past.
In a speech on the evening of March 5, Macron announced his readiness to extend France's "nuclear umbrella". "In response to the historic call of the future German chancellor, I have decided to open a strategic debate on protecting our allies on the European continent through a nuclear deterrent," he said.
The French president said his people were “rightly worried” about a “new era” under Mr Trump. “I want to believe that the United States will continue to stand by us, but we must be prepared for the possibility that it will not,” he stressed.
President Trump, who was elected on the slogan “America First,” has demanded that European allies contribute more to their own defense. He has also broken ranks with many NATO countries by refusing to unconditionally support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, instead choosing to hold direct talks with Moscow.
Mr Trump’s sharp departure from the policies of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, has left European allies questioning whether they can continue to rely on Washington to protect them. “Europe is facing a clear and present danger of a magnitude that none of us have seen in our adult lives,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a letter to EU member states on March 4.
The US president stressed that his top priority is to broker a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev to prevent the conflict from escalating into a full-scale war between the nuclear powers. In a tense exchange in the Oval Office on February 28, Mr. Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of “gambling for World War III.”
Russia has accused NATO of provocation and said Western arms supplies to Ukraine are increasing the risk of a dangerous escalation. “We believe that nuclear weapons are a tool for deterrence and preventing a nuclear war. That is how we approach this issue,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last year. “We will do everything to avoid a confrontation,” he said.
