Europe must shift its focus to long-term strategic thinking, including building deep strike capabilities and assessing how France's nuclear deterrent can fit into the bloc's future security architecture, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Macron rejected accusations that Europe was failing and defended its efforts to counter disinformation and social media excesses that are harming Western democracies, Reuters reports.
"This is the right time for boldness. This is the right time for a strong Europe," Macron said. "Europe must learn to become a geopolitical power. It was not part of our DNA."
Macron, who is entering his final year in office, said that Europe would continue to face an aggressive Russia even if an agreement is reached on the war in Ukraine, and that it must not give in to Russian demands or allow a short-term agreement that would not resolve the core issues.
"Europeans must start this work starting from their own thinking and their own interests. That is why my proposal today is to launch a series of consultations on this important issue, which we have begun to develop with our British and German colleagues, but within a broader European consultative framework with all our colleagues here, who have a lot of capacity and a lot of strategic thinking," Macron said.
Macron, who is due to give a speech later this month on how he sees the role of France's nuclear deterrent in Europe, said he had already started those consultations.
"We need to shuffle the cards and reorganize our security architecture in Europe. Because the previous security architecture was completely designed and framed during the Cold War. That's why it's no longer adapted," he said.
"In this approach, we have to re-articulate nuclear deterrence. And that's why we're designing it and I'll explain it in detail in a few weeks, but we've launched a strategic dialogue, of course with Chancellor (Angela) Merkel, but also with several European leaders, to see how we can articulate our national doctrine, which is guaranteed and controlled by the Constitution," he said.
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