French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will discuss with European allies the possibility of using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian threats, amid concerns over potential US disengagement.

France is the only nuclear power in the European Union.

Macron, in a televised address on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) ahead of a special European summit this week, described Russia as a “threat to France and Europe,” and said he had decided “to open the strategic debate on the protection of our allies on the European continent by our (nuclear) deterrent.”

He said the use of France’s nuclear weapons would remain only in the hands of the French president.

Macron’s move comes in response to a push by German election winner Friedrich Merz, who recently called for a discussion on “nuclear sharing” with France.

The UK, which is not part of the EU, also has a nuclear deterrent force.

EU leaders are set to address the issue of nuclear deterrence, among other topics, during this week’s summit in Brussels focusing on support for Ukraine and European defense. European NATO allies have for decades counted on the powerful US deterrent.

“Europe’s future does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow,” Macron said, insisting that “the innocence of the last 30 years” which followed the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, is “now over.”

Macron said Russia is now spending 40 per cent of its state budget in military spending, with plans to expand its army by 2030 with 300,000 additional soldiers, 3000 tanks and 300 jet fighters.

“Who can believe that today’s Russia will stop at Ukraine?” Macron asked.

Allies need to make sure Russia would not invade Ukraine again after a potential peace deal is signed, Macron said. This means providing “long-term support for the Ukrainian army” and possibly deploying European forces, he said.

Those forces “would not fight on the front line, but they would be there, on the contrary, once peace has been signed, to guarantee that it is fully respected,” Macron said.

He said that a meeting of army chiefs of staff of European nations willing to be involved is to be held in Paris next week.

US President Donald Trump has pushed for Europe to carry more of the burden of protecting the continent, and Trump administration officials have indicated that the current American level of engagement may not be forever.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has responded to comments made by the US Vice President that appeared to insult British troops.

Starmer opened the prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons on Wednesday with a tribute to British troops one day after JD Vance made comments to Fox News in which he appeared to refer to the UK as “some random country” that hasn’t fought a war in 30 to 40 years.

There are only two nations that have publicly said that they would provide troops, the UK and France, neither of which Vance mentioned.

Starmer paid tribute to the 642 British troops who died fighting alongside the US and other western countries in Afghanistan and Iraq.