In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle declared that “Europe must be organised so that it depends on no one”. Now as the world order reassesses itself in light of various upheavals, the same rhetoric rings true from the same quarter as it had over 60 years ago. On February 13, at the Munich Security Conference, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that “Europe has to learn to become a geopolitical power”.
Over the past few weeks, Mr. Macron has been clear that Europe must fashion for itself a path of ‘strategic autonomy’ by deepening the EU’s single market, reducing dependencies on external powers especially in critical sectors such as AI and rare-earth minerals, supporting domestic companies by bringing in a ‘Buy European’ drive, and focusing on creating deep-strike capabilities and re-articulating nuclear deterrence (France is currently the only nuclear power in the EU). On January 20, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the French President emphasised, “...building more economic sovereignty and strategic economy, especially for the Europeans,... is the core answer”.
