Charles de Gaulle’s mission for NATO: “French command,” says Sebastien Lecornu

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle sailed from Toulon on Monday. After eight months of operation and several sea trials, it is due to conduct six weeks of operations in the Mediterranean, two of which will be under NATO operational control for the first time.

The French navy’s flagship is accompanied by a nuclear submarine, specialized frigates and a supply ship that make up France’s “carrier group”, the largest in Europe.

From this Friday through May 10, the group will participate in a NATO mission with components from the United States, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, led by an American vice admiral. This news outraged the opposition. “This shocked Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the National Rally, which does not tell our fellow citizens that the command is French,” insisted Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu on France 2 this Friday morning.

“On the other hand, you have the contribution of these forces to NATO, which are under (his) operational command,” he added. “This is a matter of common sense. You are building a coalition around Charles de Gaulle,” he said. And the minister recalled that “France created NATO. If we do not fall into primary anti-Americanism, the point is that France will remain autonomous and strong” in within the Atlantic Alliance, he said.

On Thursday, seven years after the speech he wanted for Europe, President Emmanuel Macron detailed the “powerful Europe” he believes is necessary to confront a world polarized by the United States and China. From a defense point of view, we need a “new paradigm,” the head of state said, which will lead the European Union to a “new stage of the European intervention initiative.”

European intervention force “from next year”?

In 2017, at the Sorbonne, Emmanuel Macron called for the creation of a European intervention force. This was announced in March 2022 by the defense ministers of 27 countries and Commissioner Josep Borrell. “This is the first time that member states have made collective commitments on defense issues; this obligation is public; Now we must put this into practice,” the latter said, announcing the creation of a 5,000-strong force by 2025, equipped with vehicles, capable of intervening “beyond NATO.”

On Friday morning, Sebastien Lecornu expressed hope that these social forces will be created “already next year.” “There is a path to its creation in every European capital,” he explained. It will operate in the intervals between interventions by NATO members and operations in which France acts alone, he said, citing as an example the evacuation last year of thousands of people who fled Khartoum, Sudan, where war threatened, more than half of them on flights . organized by Paris. These European forces would allow, he insisted, “a very strong response in the event of a crisis,” while France would “never” give up its sovereignty over its troops.