France’s defence spending surge threatened by high national debt
Emmanuel Macron wants to strengthen military as US pulls back from Europe but must tackle steep borrowing costs.
France’s high national debt threatens to curb its defence ambitions, raising the risk that one of Europe’s strongest militaries will not be able to keep up with an expected wave of spending.
President Emmanuel Macron has called for the annual military budget to rise to between 3 and 3.5 per cent of national output from about 2 per cent now, implying a doubling of yearly spending from last year’s levels to €100bn in 2030.
[...]
Critics say France’s strategy of having the full range of military capabilities — modelled on much larger armies like the US — means it ends up with a “bonsai army”, a reference to the Japanese art of cultivating miniature trees. But its sub-scale forces are incapable of prolonged war, said Élie Tenenbaum, a defence expert at the Paris-based Ifri think-tank and director of Ifri’s Security Studies Center.
> Read the full article on Financial Times.
Media:
Reporter(s):
Format
Share
