French President Macron announces 6.5 billion euros in extra military spending in next two years
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.
https://apnews.com/article/france-macron-military-spending-17183f1871460e1451453a091ef6c4bd