France needs the creation of a typical “rapid reaction force” from 2025, confirms Sébastien Lecornu | EUROtoday

“It’s a key subject (…) which I hope we can achieve next year, by being very responsive and very fast”confirmed the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, Friday April 26, throughout an interview on France 2, in regards to the creation of a “rapid reaction force” European, talked about the day earlier than by Emmanuel Macron in his speech on Europe on the Sorbonne.

“We need to set up a rapid reaction force to be able to rapidly deploy up to 5,000 soldiers in hostile environments by 2025, in particular to come to the aid of our nationals,” declared the French president on Thursday. This “rapid reaction force” would thus be supposed for operations resembling evacuations of European nationals in nations in disaster.

There is “many crises on which NATO [Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique Nord] is not competent and on which France often carries out operations alone”, justified Mr. Lecornu on Friday. “We must be able to (…) rise very quickly [cette force] for the security of European nationals, Portuguese, Italian, German and French citizens”he stated.

Building a “credible European defense”

There is “missions that are militarized, but [que] NATO does not need to know for many reasons, and for which we say today “let’s do it in Europe”, and that, for us, is pragmatism”according to him.

The minister cited the example of the evacuation of nationals to Sudan last year. ” France [était] virtually alone » to hold out this operation in Khartoum which made it potential to evacuate “1,000 people, [dont] 200 French or 250 from memory »during which “ a major airlift with A400Ms » was notably put in place. It is natural that this burden, which “has price, value”is shared, added Mr. Lecornu.

The French president detailed, on Thursday, his imaginative and prescient of Europe for the years to return throughout a speech on the Sorbonne, primarily discussing the areas of protection and financial and business insurance policies, after taking inventory of the European Union since 2017.

“Our Europe today is mortal. She can die, and it only depends on our choices”stated Mr. Macron. “Over the next decade, (…) the risk is immense of being weakened”he added, additionally believing that the values ​​of “liberal democracy” are “increasingly criticized and contested”.

In phrases of protection, he stated he wished to create a “Power Europe”, Who “is respected”, “ensure your safety” and resumes “its strategic autonomy”. In specific, he invited the Twenty-Seven to construct a “credible European defense” which can embody ” maybe “ a European anti-missile protect, and would undergo a “European loan” in an effort to finance the protection effort with a “European preference in the purchase of military equipment”.