It is a symbol of Paris’s reinforced commitment to the Atlantic Alliance vis-à-vis Russia. The aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle, flagship of the French fleet, will come under NATO operational control for the first time for a 15-day mission in the Mediterranean. This mission bringing together ships from several nations (United States, Greece, Spain, Portugal) will take place from April 26 to May 10 under the command of the StrikforNato maritime staff, comprising fifteen nations including France, and led by an American vice admiral, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Thursday. The Charles-de-Gaulle, with its Rafale Marine fighter jets on board, will resume operations at the end of April after eight months of work.
“This is the first time that the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle and its entire escort, including a nuclear attack submarine, have been placed under the operational control of NATO for 15 days”, underlines French Vice-Admiral Didier Maleterre, number two in NATO’s maritime command, to AFP. But “at any time we can recover the mandate, and in a snap of the fingers recover the national command during operations if necessary”, specifies the senior officer.
Lecornu denounces Mélenchon’s “lie”
This announcement caused several political leaders to react, both on the left and on the far right. On the social network This message where the former presidential candidate of La France Insoumise (LFI) does not specify that it is a temporary mission caused the annoyance of Sébastien Lecornu. “We must not give in to the lie: France never loses command of its forces placed under the NATO flag. We are sovereign,” replied the Minister of the Armed Forces, congratulating himself on being “the only Europeans capable of deploy a carrier strike group of this scale” and touting an aircraft carrier which “will be the spearhead of this mission carried out with our allies”.
In a press release, the LFI parliamentary group considered that this move under NATO operational control “is not acceptable”. “Participation in NATO exercises must be conditional on exclusive national control of the conditions for implementing our nuclear deterrent,” believe the Insoumis deputies.
Criticism regarding the passage of Charles-de-Gaulle under NATO operational control also came from the far right. Like the RN European deputy Jean-Lin Lacapelle, a historic frontist, member of Jordan Bardella’s inner circle. “The only French aircraft carrier is under NATO command: the consequences of the policy of abandoning sovereignty with Emmanuel Macron,” he denounced on X.
As early as Thursday, also on “Emmanuel Macron pushes France’s submission to the point of humiliation,” denounced François Asselineau, head of the Republican Popular Union list for the European elections.
Formerly seen as a difficult ally, still the object of mistrust in Brussels, France has reinvested in NATO since the return of the Russian threat, in parallel with its military disengagement in Africa. A founding member of the organization created in 1949 to face the Soviet threat, she left the integrated military command in 1966, under the leadership of General de Gaulle, due to disagreements with the United States. She returned there in 2009, without however joining the Alliance’s nuclear plans group. The announcement from the General Staff of the Armed Forces comes at a time when France is seeking to regain importance within the Atlantic Alliance against Russia.