On March 4, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a blistering warning against French President Emmanuel Macron’s March 2 speech, delivered at the Île-Longue nuclear submarine base in Crozon, in front of a large submarine, demonstrating that it has no other purpose than to increase, step-by-step, the buildup of weapons aimed at Russia.
Marcon called for increasing the production of France’s nuclear weapons and deploying nuclear-armed aircraft to other European countries.
Zakharova said that the nuclear weapons that France builds and its sharing them with non-nuclear nations of Europe is not to build up “an alternative” to America’s nuclear force, and therefore “the expansion of [the independent] European nuclear component within NATO.” Rather, it represents an addition to the American nuclear weapons already stationed in Europe, and thus constitutes “a substantial reinforcement and expansion of NATO’s overall nuclear potential.” The British-French nuclear cooperation, which would unite the two countries’ combined 530 nuclear weapons—and each is in a buildup program—would actually be, in fact, “link[ing] British-French cooperation with the work of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group,” and therefore, a strengthening of NATO’s nuclear force.
