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French Pres.: 6.5B Euros in Spending 07/14 06:17
PARIS (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced 6.5
billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra military spending in the next two years
because of new and unprecedented threats, ranging from Russia to nuclear
proliferation, terrorists and online attacks.
The French leader laid out the spending plans in a sweeping speech calling
for intensified efforts to protect Europe, and support Ukraine in its war
against Russia's full-scale invasion. He said France will aim to spend 64
billion euros ($74.8 billion) in annual defense spending in 2027, the last year
of his second term. That would be double the 32 billion euros in annual
spending when he became president in 2017.
"Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,''
Macron said in the French president's traditional speech to the military on the
eve of the Bastille Day national holiday. ''We are experiencing a return to the
fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.''
"To be free in this world, we must be feared. To be feared, we must be
powerful,'' he said.
He insisted that France can find the money to spend more on the military
even as it tries to bring down massive national debts. Conservative and
far-right parties have supported greater defense spending, while left-wing
parties accuse the government of sacrificing hard-won social welfare benefits
for military spending.
Europe is in danger because of Russia's war in Ukraine and wars in the
Middle East, and because "the United States has added a form of uncertainty,"
Macron argued. Other dangers he cited included online disinformation campaigns
by unnamed foreign governments and propaganda operations targeting children, in
"the screen era."
Macron also ordered France's top military and defense officials to start a
"strategic dialogue" with European partners about the role that the French
nuclear arsenal could play in protecting Europe. In an exceptional move, France
and Britain agreed in recent days to cooperate on nuclear defense issues.
Macron's speech came as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to make an
announcement about Russia on Monday, and the head of NATO is traveling to
Washington for two days of talks. Trump last week announced plans to sell NATO
allies weaponry that they can then pass on to Ukraine, which has been
struggling to repel massive and complex Russian air assaults.
Macron recently spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first
time in three years, but remains a target of widespread criticism in Russia for
his vocal support for Ukraine. The Kremlin argues that the Ukraine conflict is
a consequence of Western countries' decision to ignore Russia's security
interests.
The head of the French military, Gen. Thierry Burkhard, laid out risks
emanating from Russia that stretch well beyond Ukraine.
Russia is disrupting trajectories of satellites to jam them or spy on them,
is involved in undersea infrastructure sabotage, and leads disinformation
campaigns in France and Africa, Burkhard said Friday. He said Russian attack
submarines penetrate into the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and Russian
military planes interact frequently with other aircraft over the Black Sea,
Syria, the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.
French Defense Minister Sbastien Lecornu, in an interview published Sunday
in La Tribune Dimanche, urged more French spending on defense technology and
better training of engineers and technicians.
"Big powers and certain proliferating countries are working secretly on
quantum computers ... that will be capable tomorrow of revolutionizing the
battlefield. Do we want to stay in the game?"
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