{"id":13258,"date":"2025-07-11T06:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=13258"},"modified":"2025-07-11T06:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:01:51","slug":"london-paris-tighten-nuclear-bond-over-us-russia-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=13258","title":{"rendered":"London, Paris tighten nuclear bond over US, Russia concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
Britain and France took a key step to underpin Europe’s security by agreeing to tighten nuclear cooperation, as the region frets over the US commitment to its defence and Russian ambitions.<\/p>\n

In targeting a “reboot” of defence ties with a focus on joint missile development and nuclear co-operation, while also firming up support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, Europe’s two nuclear powers also hope to send a strong signal to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Right from its inception, France’s nuclear deterrent was designed to be independent, its potential deployment subject to the French president’s evaluation of any perceived threat to the republic’s strategic interests.<\/p>\n

According to the independent Stockholm-based Sipri Institute on global security, France has 290 nuclear warheads, some carried aboard four submarines and some by Rafale fighter jets.<\/p>\n

Britain for its part has 225 nuclear warheads. For now, the British nuclear deterrent is purely sea-based, carried by four submarines armed with ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

However, the British government announced last month it would add an airborne component to its operational system with the purchase of 12 American F-35 fighter jets.<\/p>\n

Unlike France’s, Britain’s nuclear forces are fully integrated under the NATO defence umbrella to cover the Western military alliance’s 32 member states.<\/p>\n

On Thursday during a visit by its President Emmanuel Macron to London, France agreed to the principle of coordination with Britain despite nominal national independence.<\/p>\n

Despite the cherished independence of the French deterrent, Macron remarked in 2020 that France’s vital interests have an “authentically European dimension”.<\/p>\n

In a 1995 joint declaration Paris and London acknowledged that “the vital interests of one (partner) could not be threatened without the vital interests of the other equally being at risk”.<\/p>\n

Whereas that declaration was limited to the definition of the two neighbours’ “vital interests”, the latest cooperation accord goes much further.<\/p>\n

The 1995 accord “was a uniquely Franco-British declaration on a very political level”, said Heloise Fayet, a researcher on nuclear issues at the French Institute for International Relations.<\/p>\n

In the latest announcement, “the reference to nuclear arms is much more visible and clear,” Fayet told AFP.<\/p>\n

“There are two advances: on the operational level with this coordination of the two deterrents. And the second is obviously the expansion of the joint European dimension.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain and France took a key step to underpin Europe’s security by agreeing to tighten nuclear cooperation, as the region frets over the US commitment to its defence and Russian ambitions. In targeting a “reboot” of defence ties with a focus on joint missile development and nuclear co-operation, while also firming up support for Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}