BERLIN \u2014 France and Germany this week created a high-level nuclear steering group, marking another step toward European nuclear deterrence, as questions hang here over the long-term reliability of the United States as a security guarantor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a joint declaration<\/a>, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the new body would serve as a bilateral framework for \u201cdoctrinal dialogue and the coordination of strategic cooperation,\u201d including consultations on the appropriate mix of conventional, missile defense and French nuclear capabilities. The announcement, grounded in the bilateral 2019 Treaty of Aachen, follows months of exploratory talks that Merz had revealed publicly at the Munich Security Conference in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also came alongside a major speech by Macron<\/a> in which he announced significant shifts to France\u2019s nuclear doctrine, an increase in the country\u2019s nuclear stockpile, and the option of extending the French nuclear-deterrence umbrella across the continent, with the president specifically naming the U.K., Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Berlin and Paris agreed to take concrete steps beginning this year \u2212 notably, German conventional participation in French nuclear exercises and joint visits to strategic sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The joint statement was careful to affirm that the arrangement \u201cwill add to, not substitute for, NATO\u2019s nuclear deterrence and NATO\u2019s nuclear sharing arrangements,\u201d which hinge on U.S. presence in Europe, while also noting Britain\u2019s role in the alliance\u2019s nuclear arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.K. has also taken steps to modernize its nuclear force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The joint statement further said that both countries would continue to comply with their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia and a number of non-nuclear states have long objected to nuclear sharing as a potential breach of the letter or spirit of the NPT. Since 2023, Russia has itself engaged in nuclear sharing by placing some of its warheads on the territory of Belarus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Franco-German initiative appears to carry the tacit backing of the Trump administration. At a Council on Foreign Relations event<\/a> in early March, Elbridge Colby<\/a>, the under secretary of defense for policy, endorsed a greater European nuclear role within NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s perfectly appropriate and, from our point of view at the Department of War, reasonable for there to be a greater European complexion to NATO nuclear deterrence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n