Macron promises to double budget for overseas military operations

Emmanuel-Macron, France President

Emmanuel Macron, French President

Emmanuel-Macron, French President

France will double its budget for overseas military operations, President Emmanuel Macron told officers and troops on Friday.

Funding for overseas operations will rise from the current level of 450 million euros (552 million dollars) to 1.1 billion euros in 2020, Macron said.

France, along with Britain is the western European country most involved in overseas operations.

Its main current deployment is a force of almost 4,000 troops based in Niger, Mali and Chad to help local security forces combat militants in the Sahel region.

Macron, in a New Year’s address to the armed forces at the naval base in Toulon, said that the cost of overseas operations had consistently been underestimated, leading to perennial disputes over budgetary adjustments.

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He repeated his commitment to bring defence spending up to two per cent of gross domestic product by 2025.

The 2018, defence budget of 34.2 billion euros was up 1.8 billion euros on the previous year and the budget would be raised by 1.7 billion euros annually for the three following years too,’’ he said.

“What we have to retain is France’s rightful place in the concert of nations,” he argued.

Macron also expressed strong support for European defence cooperation, while denying that it would supplant the NATO alliance that also brings in the U.S. and Canada.

European strategic autonomy was “a geopolitical necessity,” he argued.

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