{"id":60251,"date":"2026-07-24T04:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/60251\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T04:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:47:20","slug":"backed-by-france-macron-sees-germany-as-nuclear-deterrence-vanguard-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/60251\/","title":{"rendered":"Backed by France, Macron sees Germany as nuclear-deterrence \u2018vanguard\u2019 in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIENNA \u2014 Nuclear cooperation between France and Germany has moved from words to first actions, with French nuclear-capable bombers visiting a German airfield this month and joint exercises on the calendar. <\/p>\n

The leaders in Paris and Berlin had formed a \u201cnuclear steering group\u201d in March to coordinate the countries\u2019 closer integration in atomic strategic matters. It is part of a major French doctrinal shift billed as \u201cforward deterrence,\u201d in which France promises to extend its nuclear umbrella to other countries in Europe. <\/p>\n

Germany was among the first to sign up for the new scheme four months ago. A total of nine countries spanning from Norway to Greece have joined the initiative so far.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the press alongside French president Emmanuel Macron on Jul. 17, German chancellor Friedrich Merz officially confirmed reports that Germany would be participating in upcoming French nuclear exercises with its own conventional forces. <\/p>\n

The exercise has been identified<\/a> as the French \u201cPoker\u201d maneuver, which is set to take place in September, Politico reported. <\/p>\n

Additionally, Macron said that for the first time ever, a French nuclear-capable Rafale jet had been temporarily hosted at a German air base \u2212 specifically at N\u00f6rvenich near Cologne, where the Franco-German Defence and Security Council met on Jul. 17. <\/p>\n

A day earlier, French Rafales had been refuelled while airborne alongside German Eurofighters in a symbolic kickoff to the two countries\u2019 nuclear strategic cooperation. <\/p>\n

The meeting at N\u00f6rvenich was the first major high-level defense meeting since the collapse of the joint Future Combat Air System, or FCAS, project that has caused a strain in relations and bad blood between French and German defense contractors. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the attitude the leaders presented to the press was forward-looking and cooperative. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are charting a new, shared course in deterrence,\u201d Merz said, though he also emphasized that he did not want it to be seen as competition to NATO nuclear sharing, but rather as a supplement to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis complements our commitment to NATO\u2019s nuclear sharing and deterrence arrangements, which we continue to uphold,\u201d Merz said. <\/p>\n

Under NATO\u2019s current, U.S.-led nuclear sharing arrangement, Germany hosts American nuclear bombs on its soil and operates dual-capable aircraft able to deliver the weapons to their targets if the U.S. president authorizes their use. Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey similarly host U.S. nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n

While sovereignty over the weapons and all decision-making related to the use of the bombs will remain in Paris under the new doctrine, conventional tasks may be taken on by Germany and other allies under the forward deterrence scheme. It may also see French fighter jets operating out of other European countries\u2019 air bases.<\/p>\n

Macron said he saw Germany as playing a \u201cvanguard role\u201d in European deterrence. <\/p>\n

France is the only European Union country with its own nuclear arsenal following the U.K.\u2019s departure from the bloc in 2020. Alongside announcing the new forward deterrence strategy in March, Macron also announced that his country would increase its nuclear stockpile, contributing to a larger trend<\/a> of unraveling longtime effective Cold War-era arms control arrangements and nuclear restraint. <\/p>\n

The steering group will continue to work out details for how Germany will fit into the picture of French nuclear deterrence going forward, including determining avenues for collaboration and what forces could be used. <\/p>\n

From the French side, inviting Germany into the fold would entail \u201cexplaining some aspects of how we operate, sharing certain closely held practices, offering joint exercises, developing joint initiatives and partnerships and fostering greater \u2026 trust among our teams, experts and military personnel,\u201d Macron said in N\u00f6rvenich.<\/p>\n

Linus H\u00f6ller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master\u2019s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIENNA \u2014 Nuclear cooperation between France and Germany has moved from words to first actions, with French nuclear-capable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1326,1327,1322,151,60,5,478,44272,46880],"class_list":["post-60251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-circulated-defense-news","tag-defense-news","tag-dn-dnr","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-nato","tag-norvenich","tag-nuclear-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}