In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to expand the country's nuclear arsenal, and said that France may allow European partners to temporarily receive the country's nuclear weapon-carrying aircraft.
In an interview published on April 23, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that this is part of the process of "increasing out of control" of NATO's nuclear potential, creating a strategic threat to Russia.
He emphasized that Russia is concerned about the possibility of France deploying nuclear forces to other European countries. Mr. Macron said that France is discussing agreements on this content with the UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark.
Clearly, our military will be forced to pay special attention to this issue when updating the list of priority targets in the event of a major conflict," Mr. Grushko told state media corporation Russia Today.
Mr. Macron's initiative is part of the efforts of European members of NATO to shoulder more self-defense responsibilities, after US President Donald Trump criticized the alliance many times, as well as before developments about the possibility of the US seizing control of Greenland from Denmark, a member of NATO.
The last treaty capable of limiting the scale of Russia's and the US's strategic nuclear arsenal expired in February 2026, creating a gap in global arms control, amid international tensions at their highest level in decades due to the Ukraine and Iran conflicts.
Mr. Grushko said that all future dialogues on nuclear weapons must take into account the common capabilities of the entire NATO, including the nuclear arsenals of France, Britain and the United States.
This week, NATO made comments on the nuclear weapons policy of Russia and China, and called on the two countries to cooperate with the US to create more stability and transparency at the United Nations conference next week on reviewing the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
