American Reacts France’s Plan to Build a Mini NATO Explained

[00:00:00]Yeah, I'll react to that. Sure.

[00:00:03]>> A mini NATO.

[00:00:06]Okay. Uh, what does that Oh god.

[00:00:10]France's plan to build a mini NATO explained. TLDDR News EU. Hey guys, I'm Connor. If you're new, uh, let's let's learn. Let's go.

[00:00:18]>> Return to office. There's been an ongoing debate as to whether Europe should give up NATO entirely and try to since Donald Trump's return to office, there's been an ongoing debate as to whether Europe should give up NATO entirely and try to create a new European security architecture or stick with NATO and reform it to make it less dependent on the US.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah, as you can tell, I'm American, but given what's happened in the past few years, I I I don't think that's a bad idea at all. I think it's a good idea, >> mainly by boosting European. It pains me to say that, but >> stick with NATO and reform it to make it less dependent on the US, mainly by boosting European defense budgets. As evidenced by last week's NATO summit, which had the tagline, "A stronger Europe is a stronger NATO." Most European leaders have apparently chosen the latter option. But this apparently hasn't deterred France, which has always been skeptical of NATO, and has recently been building up what looks like the beginnings of a new French-led alternative.

[00:01:11]>> Classic France. France has been saying this since de Gaulle in the beginning.

[00:01:16]Well, when I mean the beginning, I mean post World War II. Uh so this is no change for France historically since the World War II and got to give them credit. They they've stood strong and they've always made good points >> signing a number of defense agreements with individual EU countries and expanding the French British nuclear umbrella. So, in this video, we'll explain how France is quietly building a sort of European NATO and how it might work.

[00:01:47][music] >> Yeah. Yeah. So, as far as the nuclear umbrella, I know that the UK also has nuclear weapons, but I I believe I hope I'm right here, correct me if I'm wrong, that France is the only country between the UK and France that is completely self-reliant on its uh both its nuclear, you know, its its creation of their nuclear weapons and its delivery systems, which I think the UK still does rely on America for the delivery of those uh British nuclear weapons.

[00:02:26]Recent elections in Denmark, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Hungary have shaken up the state of European politics with major new trends emerging. We dissect these elections in the latest issue of our magazine, as well as explaining what's changing in Europe. That's just one of 80 pages in the magazine, because there's more in too long than you'd expect. Purchase your copy by clicking the link in the description. We'll start with some history on French NATO relations. France has been one of NATO's 12 founding members since 1949 and hosted NATO's first permanent headquarters in Paris in the 1950s and60s. However, from 1959 to 1969, the first president of France's newly established fifth republic was the former general Charles de Gaul, a staunch nationalist who was always skeptical of the US, having viewed it as self-interested during the Second World War. In 1963, expressing doubts over the US's commitment to European security, de Gaul said, "Nobody in the world, in particular, nobody in America can say whether, where, how, to what extent the US nuclear arms would be used to defend Europe." As such, the craziest thing about that too is that France was not in the greatest position, to put it lightly, right after World War II, um, to to have this opinion, right? You might think France would be the one of the ones that, you know, they got they would be so afraid of resurfacing Germany and a aggressive Soviet Union that they would be more pro allowing the US to have a bit more control, but they didn't. And that's classic French ideology and nothing but respect. I feel like I'm repeating myself. Sorry.

[00:04:04]>> Now, to what extent the US nuclear arms would be used to defend Europe? As such, de Gaulle's presidency marked a turning point in French US and French NATO relations, and under his leadership, France decided to pursue its own independent nuclear program with France's nuclear deterrent today still entirely independent. Moreover, de Gaulle actually withdrew France from NATO's integrated command in 1966 in protest against the US's dominance in NATO. Over the following decades, France continued to participate in NATO's political structures and joint operations while maintaining an independent military command and nuclear deterrence. After the end of the Cold War, French cooperation with NATO steadily deepened through interventions in Bosnia from 1993 to 2004 and Kosovo in 1999. And in 2009, under then President Nicolas Sarosi, France fully rejoined NATO's integrated military command. However, throughout this time, many French politicians and leaders remained skeptical about the US's dominance within NATO. For instance, France along with Germany refused to join the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and French President Emanuel Maccron described the alliance as brain dead in 2019. Moreover, in the past four and a half years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and especially more recently following NATO skeptic Donald Trump's return to office, Mcron has essentially tried to reashion himself as a modern Charles de Gaul, arguing repeatedly for European strategic autonomy and that specifically the EU should take on more responsibility for Europe security. However, most of the European leaders have apparently decided that rather than ditching NATO entirely, they just need to spend more on defense and make NATO more European. Macron presumably isn't opposed to this, but at the same time, he has quietly started building up what looks like the beginnings of a French-led alternative.

[00:05:49]Broadly, there seem to be three main elements to this new European NATO.

[00:05:53]Number one, a nuclear umbrella. Number two, forging intraEU defense partnerships, and number three, pushing for deeper European integration on defense. Let's take a look at these in turn. Let's start with the nuclear umbrella. In short, Macron has been pushing to increase the size of France's nuclear arsenal and deepen cooperation with the UK, Europe's only other nuclear power to form a so-called nuclear umbrella over Europe. For context, France has the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world with an estimated 290 warheads, while the UK has around 225, China has around 600, and the US and Russia each have over 5,000. In June 2025, France and the UK signed the Northward Declaration, an agreement to deepen cooperation on nuclear weapons and essentially form a joint nuclear umbrella. This is a type of security guarantee where one nuclear armed state agrees to use its nuclear weapons to defend a non-uclear country from attack.

[00:06:46]Since the 1950s, most of Europe has been covered via NATO by the US's nuclear umbrella, but its deterrence effect has come under question since Trump's return to office. As such, in early March, Mcron announced that France would pursue a new doctrine of forward deterrence, which involved nuclear cooperation with more European partners and allows for French nuclear armed aircraft to be deployed on allied territory. Over the past year, eight European countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK have joined the French-led nuclear deterrent scheme, and France and Germany are also leading a highle nuclear steering group to coordinate their strategies. Moving on, France's second role in creating a European NATO French-led nuclear deterrent scheme. And France and Germany are also leading a high level nuclear steering group to coordinate their strateging groups. Moving on, France's second role in creating a European NATO is building a network of bilateral defense partnerships outside the frameworks of the EU or NATO. Since 2025, France has signed bilateral defense agreements with countries including the UK, Cyprus, Ireland, Poland, Norway, Sweden, and Canada. Some of these agreements are really quite substantial. The new French deal with Cypress, for instance, allows French troops to be deployed on the island. Before this, back in 2019, France also signed a bilateral defense agreement, the Arkham Treaty, with Germany and a defense pact with Greece in 2021. By positioning itself at the center of this intra-European network of security partnerships, France is trying to become the nucleus of Europe's collective defense and make sure that Europe is ready to take greater responsibility for its own security.

[00:08:25]Okay, I I I tried not to think too much about my next statement because I would miss things that I saw, but I'm going to try and say my my issue here.

[00:08:35]Not not an issue that makes this not make sense. I think it does. But I think you are naturally go as as you move away from a more USA American centered NATO where America is the big one who has its own individual capabilities that can deter people um that are from attacking places that are allied with the US such as NATO countries, right?

[00:09:04]And so that was a thing before. And so now since you've had Trump and those questions are exponentially greater now as to if the USA will actually protect Europe and other NATO countries as much as they might have in the past. I I think that this this switch is necessary.

[00:09:25]You're also going to have some problems that will naturally develop within NATO like an an increase um French presence on Cyprus or more concrete, you know, another uh defense treaty with say Greece individually that'll cause a NATO country like Turkey to be a little hesitant. And so there are going to be problems that are going to arise as European NATO countries kind of try to separate and become more independent from American security guarantees.

[00:10:00]There are going to be some problems down the line and you have to anticipate those. But I think no matter what becoming more independent from US security guarantees is a good idea. I hope I said that right. The third element of a French-led NATO is pushing for deeper European integration on defense. This essentially means things like more joint procurement, joint defense projects like the possible longrange air defense program between France, Italy, and Turkey that's currently being discussed, and greater interoperability between European armed forces with Macron having called for a true European army since at least 2018.

[00:10:33]However, France has also run into problems here with the future combat air system or FCAS, a decade old FrancoGermanled joint fighter jet program ultimately collapsing in June over industrial rivalries and some EU member states like Austria, Ireland, and Malta also oppose joint defense initiatives because of their neutrality.

[00:10:52]Ultimately, at the moment, NATO still exists as a functional military alliance that's unlikely to be replaced by any French-led alternative anytime soon. The aim of a French-led European NATO is therefore to complement rather than replace the transatlantic alliance and to create a stronger European pillar within NATO amid uncertainty over the future of US security guarantees. Now, as you're probably aware, it's kind of impossible to avoid talking or thinking about the big players that control our world, much like the ones we've spoken about today. But it's not just the government leaders that impact our day-to-day life, >> data brokers. it's also the big companies and how it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.

[00:11:32]>> So, I'm going to watch through the advertisement of course. Um, but I just want to give my last my last thoughts here is that this could be an opportunity for Europe to, you know, the the Trump election and the Trump second election.

[00:11:53]It might have been a great thing for Europe that America showed this side of themselves at this time because if if it didn't, I'm trying to be, you know, optimistic here for Europe. If it didn't, then you might just continue with the, you know, being okay with America really dominating NATO and then maybe a Trump-like figure rose up in say the early 2030s and then then you really might not have a chance to really change as much as you have a chance right now. And the biggest reason is that the USA when when NATO was was started the main it was during the cold war, right?

[00:12:37]And the main thing was, you know, the USA is the big power and the main thing that NATO countries are afraid of is the Soviet Union. And so when you had the Cold War where it's the Soviet Union, the USSR and the USA, then it was much easier to to disregard American dominance in European security, right?

[00:13:01]But as soon as the USSR fell, I would say we are not in the post World War II era anymore. We're in the post post World War II era. I don't know a name for it, but where now you don't have just Russia. Russia is still pretty powerful. It's not as powerful as it was in, you know, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it's still very powerful. But now you have a very dominant and still rising China. you have countries like South Korea, Japan, um India is rising up. U so so you you have a lot more players in the world who are capable compared to when it was the post World War II era where it was really it was the Soviet Union that was dominant and the USA that was dominant, right? But since then the world has begun to rebuild and countries have become more capable on their own. And so now you really got to question the reliance on the USA and NATO because it was because there was some security I'm sure for people who were alive in Europe during the cold war in that you know even if you know America is across the ocean they are ally and they don't like the USSR SSR the USSR either but now that's not the case anymore. We still don't like Russia, but there are a lot of other players, which makes the European, let's see if I can finish this. The European calm state of mind of America being so dominant in NATO, much less so the case. And so in my opinion, if I was not American and I was any country, any other country in NATO, I think that every country should have at least the ability to protect itself by itself. Even if you're in NATO, just have that ability. And as once as that's the case, then I think a lot more NATO countries will be more comfortable with having a less dominating USA presence in NATO.

[00:15:08]I hope that made some sort of sense.

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