English Section

Poland in talks with France, European allies on nuclear deterrence: PM

02.03.2026 20:30
Poland is in talks with France and a group of European allies on an advanced nuclear deterrence programme, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday.
Polands Prime Minister Donald Tusk (right) and French President Emmanuel Macron (left) meet in Warsaw on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk (right) and French President Emmanuel Macron (left) meet in Warsaw on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak

Earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that eight countries—Poland, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden—had agreed to take part in a French-proposed enhanced nuclear deterrence initiative.

"Poland is in talks with France and a group of closest European allies on the programme of advanced nuclear deterrence," Tusk wrote on X.

"We are arming up together with our friends so that our enemies will never dare to attack us," he added.

Speaking at the Île Longue military base in Brittany, Macron said France would increase the number of its nuclear warheads, arguing that the current geopolitical moment, marked by multiple threats, justified strengthening the country’s nuclear deterrence model.

He said Europe was undergoing a gradual shift toward an enhanced nuclear deterrence framework that would allow France’s European allies to participate in nuclear exercises.

Macron said France could temporarily deploy elements of its strategic forces to European allies.

As with its strategic submarines, he said, French aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons could be dispersed across the continent.

He said that the proposed French nuclear deterrence initiative would be fully complementary to NATO at both the strategic and technical levels.

Work on the joint project with European countries was being conducted with full transparency toward the United States and in close cooperation with the United Kingdom, he said.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, France has 290 nuclear warheads. Its arsenal is based on submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-delivered systems carried by Rafale fighter jets.

An increase in France's arsenal would mark its first expansion since 1992, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

The leaders of France and Germany said in a joint statement on Monday that they would deepen cooperation on nuclear deterrence by creating a high-level steering group to begin work this year.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP