France in March 2026: the most important developments in security
In March 2026, French security news centred on nuclear weapons and the war involving Iran. On 2 March, President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to significantly expand France's nuclear arsenal and offered a form of nuclear protection to European partners, saying a country must be feared to be free. Italy's Matteo Salvini called the idea of a European nuclear shield "dangerous nonsense", Russia called the expansion destabilising, and Spain declined to join a French-led programme. Germany joined France in a panel on shared nuclear plans. On 17 March Macron said France must prepare for "an age of nuclear weapons".
France also moved forces toward the conflict. The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was sent to the Mediterranean, fighter jets were deployed over the United Arab Emirates to protect French bases, and France and its allies planned a defensive naval mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On 12 and 13 March, drone attacks on a base at Makhmour in Iraqi Kurdistan wounded at least six French soldiers and killed one. A group aligned with Iran claimed responsibility. Macron called the attack "unacceptable", promised a response of "calm" and "cold blood" and said France is not "at war with anyone". By 18 March France and Britain were preparing to send mine-hunting drones to the waterway, and on 23 March France tabled its own UN resolution on shipping there, in competition with one from Bahrain. France announced nearly $10 billion in extra munitions spending through 2030.
French forces also moved against tankers suspected of sanctions evasion. Belgian and French special forces boarded a Russian tanker in the North Sea on 1 March, and on 20 March the French navy, supported by Britain, seized the Russian-linked tanker Deyna in the Mediterranean; it reached Marseille on 23 March. Germany set a mid-April deadline to resolve the deadlock over the joint fighter jet project with France.
At home, French police foiled a bomb plot outside a Bank of America in Paris and arrested five people.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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