Plans to deploy French nuclear weapons on Germany’s doorstep are meant to “position France as Europe’s main defender” before Berlin is able seize that role, international relations and Russian affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow told Sputnik.
“Moreover, the French are seeking not just political capital but plain monetary capital: France’s nuclear force de frappe is outdated, in need of renewal and in need of great expansion,” he added.
“All of this will require money that France does not hand. Its sotto voce message to other European states is that they should help co-finance the build-out of the French nuclear force.”
This move is also meant to insulate Europe from the consequences of sabotaging the US peace initiatives in Ukraine, with France providing an alternative to the US nuclear umbrella in case the latter were to be withdrawn.
Macron Wants to ‘Restore French Primacy in EU’ Through Nukes
France’s plans to extend its nuclear umbrella to Germany are the product of Europe concluding that the US under Trump “is no longer committed to NATO and the EU,” geopolitical analyst Come Carpentier de Gourdon tells Sputnik.
“Macron believes that providing French nuclear protection to Europe can restore French primacy in the EU which was lost to Germany in the last twenty years,” he suggests.
At the same time, Macron may be seeking to become the “head of a more federal, united Europe” once his tenure as French president ends.
“This is all part of the plan to make Europe a more independent and sovereign quasi-State between the continental super-nations of US, Russia, India and China and perhaps tomorrow united Latin America, South East Asia and Africa,” de Gourdon postulates.
