French President Emmanuel Macron will boost defense spending in the coming years to guarantee his country’s domestic security and maintain French military engagement abroad, as he repeated his wishes for an increased European military cooperation on Friday. Addressing soldiers onboard the assault ship Dixmude off the naval base of Toulon, Macron promised to increase spending by 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) this year to 34.2 billion euros ($ 42 billion).
He also pledged to bring defense spending to 2 per cent of GDP from about 1.8 per cent currently by 2025, in a move aimed at “stopping the erosion of our military capacity.”
Six months after a crisis over cuts in the military budget led to the appointment of a new chief of staff of the armed forces, Macron said the financial effort was “unprecedented.”
last summer, Gen. Pierre de Villiers submitted his resignation after a clash with Macron and was replaced by Gen. Francois lecointre. De Villiers had resisted 850 million euros ($1 billion) in cuts to last year’s budget.