Overview
- France will increase its nuclear warhead stockpile and cease disclosing total numbers to introduce strategic ambiguity.
- Paris authorized temporary forward deployments of nuclear‑armed aircraft and joint exercises with eight partners: Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark.
- France and Germany created a nuclear steering group, with Berlin pledging conventional support in French nuclear exercises before year‑end.
- Russia condemned the shift as highly destabilising and argued that French and British arsenals should be included in any future arms talks.
- NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed the French update yet stated the U.S. nuclear umbrella remains Europe’s ultimate security guarantee.