France will expand its nuclear arsenal in response to Russia’s ongoing nuclear buildup and China’s efforts to match U.S. military capabilities, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, March 2.

“To be free, you must be feared. To be feared, you must be powerful,” the president highlighted on his social media.

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During an inaugural speech at a military base housing the nation’s ballistic missile submarines, he claimed that if France had to use its arsenal, “no state, however powerful, could protect itself from it, and no state, however great, would recover from it.”

According to the head of state, the strategy includes “circumstantial deployments” of nuclear weapons in other European NATO states, even within the framework of joint exercises. Likewise, he mentioned that the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark are interested in hosting French nuclear weapons.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski stated during the month of February that he would also accept nuclear weapons from France or the United Kingdom.

Macron emphasized that Paris will no longer reveal the size of its arsenal in order to instill fear in its adversaries regarding its potential.

France is estimated to possess just under 300 nuclear warheads, about 13 times fewer than Russia or the United States, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has made accusations against Paris and London regarding the smuggling of nuclear weapons components and technologies to Kiev.

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