"I have decided to open a strategic discussion about protecting our allies on the European continent with our nuclear deterrent," he said.

However, Macron stressed that "no matter what happens, the decision [on the use of nuclear weapons] has always been and will always be in the hands of the French president."

After the UK left the EU, France remained the only country in the union armed with nuclear weapons. American nuclear warheads are deployed in Europe, but after Donald Trump came to power, the debate about the possible withdrawal of American forces from the Old World intensified. rbc.ru.

France is ready to provide its fighter jets with nuclear weapons for deployment in Germany in the event of the withdrawal of the American contingent from Europe, The Telegraph wrote in late February.

France is one of the nine countries of the "nuclear club". According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), by the beginning of 2023, it had 290 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.

In 2017, Paris released the Strategic Review on Defense and National Security, which outlined the essence of its nuclear policy: French "deterrence is exclusively defensive"; the use of nuclear weapons "would be possible only in extreme circumstances of legitimate self—defense," therefore, such weapons are "a guarantee of the security, protection and independence of the nation."