CESSON-SÉVIGNÉ, France — French President Emmanuel Macron hinted on Monday that France would need to go beyond NATO’s current spending target, especially if United States President Donald Trump pulls the American military out of Europe.
While many other European countries have said since the war in Ukraine began three years ago that defense spending should far exceed the NATO’s decade-old target of at least 2 percent of GDP, it’s the first time Paris has contemplated taking a similar line.
“France currently exceeds 2 percent of GDP for defense spending,” Macron said during his New Year’s address to the armed forces, speaking before an audience of top military and defense industry officials. “But is that enough to achieve the mass, depth and innovation to defend ourselves in a major confrontation? Is that enough to organize ourselves on a European scale and have the means to fight?”
Speaking only one hour before Trump’s inauguration, the French president added: “What will we do in Europe tomorrow if our American ally withdraws its warships from the Mediterranean? What if [the U.S.] switches its fighter planes from the Atlantic to the Pacific? These are all scenarios we need to prepare for. These are all scenarios we are preparing for.”
Earlier this month, Trump said he wanted NATO allies to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense — a figure supported by countries close to the Russian border, such as Poland and Lithuania.
Some European capitals are keen to show the U.S. they are taking their own defense seriously, fearful that Trump could pull out of NATO if that’s not the case.
Last week, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said he would “seek to ensure that our NATO allies demonstrate” a strong commitment to the alliance’s Article 3, which states that members must be “sufficiently prepared” to face a crisis.
In 2024, France spent 2.06 percent of GDP on its military, reaching NATO’s target for the first time since it was set in 2014.
However, the military alliance is widely expected to agree to a higher goal at its June summit in The Hague. Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week the new figure will likely be north of 3 percent. Any increase would need the unanimous backing of all allies — including France.
But Macron insisted that any defense spending increase by European countries should benefit the continent’s industry, not American companies.
“France defends and will continue to defend European preference” for arms procurement, he said, hammering France’s well-known mantra of building up Europe’s own military industrial complex.
European champions
To compete on the global stage, the French president said, Europeans will need to consolidate their defense industry and create continental champions — even if France doesn’t win every time.
“To succeed in this competition, we need to invest more, but we also need to simplify, integrate and agree to have European champions,” he told the audience. “Let’s be clear, we won’t always be the European champions, but at least we’ll be sure that European champions have a global reach.”
“Simplification means choosing the best in Europe and getting away from the logic we’ve always had until now, which was basically to finance everyone in the same way,” he added, praising the joint development of tanks, air defense systems and missile programs as “key.”
The French president criticized the fragmentation of the bloc’s weapons-makers: The U.S. has eight main land warfare platforms, while Europe has 62; the U.S. has six main naval warfare platforms, while Europe has 47, he said.
Earlier on Monday, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office formally approved a joint venture between Germany’s Rheinmetall and Italy’s Leonardo. The tie-up — pitched as a first step to a wider consolidation in Europe’s land armaments sector — aims to manufacture tanks and armored vehicles for the Italian army.
