The Polish leader said it was “a historic event”. “I am deeply convinced (…) that France and Poland will be able to count on each other in all circumstances, the good and the difficult,” he said at a press conference when the text includes a mutual assistance clause in the event of an armed attack. This treaty marks “a new page”, said Emmanuel Macron, evoking “irreversible solidarity”.
He also hammered that the “vital interests” of France, the basis of its nuclear deterrent strategy, also included those of its “main partners” in Europe. “Since the 1960s, with the words of General de Gaulle, the European dimension of this deterrence has been affirmed and it has been constantly reaffirmed by all my predecessors,” recalled the French president.
Umbrella. France is the only country in Western Europe, with the United Kingdom, endowed with nuclear weapons. The other European countries members of NATO are so far under the American nuclear umbrella. The signing of this treaty comes while Poland has become a key actor on the eastern NATO side and feels threatened by Moscow.
The reunion in Nancy took place when, in Moscow, Vladimir Putin challenged Westerners with an imposing military parade for the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. “President Putin is on the side of war, not on the side of peace (…) and those who may have thought that he had a hint of peace are on their behalf,” said Emmanuel Macron when the war in Ukraine did not weaken despite Donald Trump’s promise to end it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a summit of European leaders on Friday supporting kyiv against the Russian invasion planned, according to him, on Saturday in Ukraine. Before flying to France, Donald Tusk announced that the treaty would include a mutual defense clause, which “opens up the possibility of cooperation” in matters of nuclear deterrence.
Support. “French nuclear deterrence has a European component, and in this treaty, it is an even stronger solidarity than we are selling, which makes it possible to operational what is already in article 5 of NATO,” said Emmanuel Macron on Place Stanislas de Nancy. “This mutual support clause in the event of assault against one of our countries is the very essence of this treaty,” said the Polish leader.
“In the event of a threat, attack on Poland, and France, the two countries undertake to provide mutual assistance, including military,” he said. Asked about concrete aid in the event of Aggression of Poland by Russia, Emmanuel Macron assured that “deployment would be possible in the face of an assault and if the worst should happen”.
“I want as proof that when Russia decided on this war of assault against Ukraine in February 2022, we were able to deploy troops in Romania in five days,” he said. Paris and Warsaw had already concluded a treaty in 1991, while Poland came out of the Soviet glacis, after the fall of the iron curtain, but less ambitious.
Nuclear. In addition to the defense, Franco-Polish cooperation will be reinforced in the key infrastructure and nuclear energy sectors, while Warsaw provides for the construction of several power plants. Donald Tusk put forward “mutual security guarantees”, his country of some 38 million inhabitants having launched in an accelerated modernization program of his army and has become a major political and military actor in Europe.
So far very dependent on the United States for its defense, it is deeply shaken by the climate of uncertainty generated by Donald Trump’s ambivalences to Europe. “We are going to organize common exercises between our armies in the coming months,” said Emmanuel Macron.
Paris hopes to strengthen military and diplomatic coordination in the region, and no longer let the United States dominate dialogue with the Poles. The French head of state called for a “median way”, “that of strategic autonomy which means that on all that is essential, we want it to be European” while cooperating with the “American allies”.
Valérie Leroux and Delphine Touitou with Bernard Osser in Warsaw
© Agence France-Presse
