“Let’s put everything on the table and look at what truly protects us in a credible way,” Emmanuel Macron said in a meeting with young Europeans published Saturday April 27 by the Ebra group newspapers. After a speech on Europe on Thursday April 25 at the Sorbonne, the French president once again said he was ready to “open the debate” on a European defense which would include “anti-missile defense, long-range weapons fire reach, the nuclear weapon for those who have it or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil”. But who are these countries?
Armed states and others that host American weapons
The construction of a defense Europe has been an ambition of France for a very long time, but it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which 30 European states out of 32 are members (including 23 of the European Union), which largely ensures this collective defense. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2022 and the possible return to the White House of Donald Trump have relaunched the debate on European autonomy in defense matters. “Being credible also means having long-range missiles that would deter the Russians,” added the head of state in his interview.
In the European Union (EU), France is the only country to have nuclear weapons. The United Kingdom, which left the EU in 2020, also has it. Elsewhere in Europe, Russia, along with the United States, has 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
Several European states (Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands), as well as Turkey, would host American bombs as members of NATO, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The institute estimates that the US Airforce has deployed “around a hundred B61 bombs outside the United States for potential use by combat aircraft” operated by these NATO members on six air bases, although that the weapons remain in the custody of the United States Air Force.
In total in 2023, France had 290 warheads deployed or stored, and the United Kingdom 225. Russia had 4,489 warheads, not counting weapons withdrawn awaiting dismantling.
“Contribute more to the defense of European soil”
“Nuclear deterrence” is “at the heart of French defense strategy. It is therefore in essence an essential element in the defense of the European continent,” declared Emmanuel Macron during his speech at the Sorbonne on Thursday April 25. In the interview published on Saturday, the Head of State underlines that “the French doctrine is that we can use it when our vital interests are threatened. I have already said that there is a European dimension to these interests vital, without detailing them because this deterrence would contribute to the credibility of European defense”.
Emmanuel Macron adds that France would keep “its specificity but is ready to contribute more to the defense of European soil”. Comments which were criticized on Sunday by François-Xavier Bellamy, head of the Republican list in the European elections on June 9, and by the parliamentary group of La France insoumise in a press release estimating that the head of state “has just worn a another blow to the credibility of the French nuclear deterrent”.