Paris is demanding that Berlin clarify when it will use "surgical strikes" against Russia to avoid nuclear retaliation. Financial Times.
France is pressing Germany to determine how it would use long-range ballistic missiles in the event of a conflict with Russia, warning that failure to do so could inadvertently drag Europe into nuclear war, the newspaper reported, citing sources.
Paris is in talks with German officials to align Berlin's doctrine on the use of weapons capable of delivering so-called "deep penetrating strikes" (DPU) in line with France's nuclear strategy, six sources said.
"If the Russians get the signal wrong, we can quietly approach the nuclear threshold," said a French official, warning of the consequences of attacking Russian targets with conventional weapons.
French military leaders insist on developing a clear and public doctrine for the use of such weapons to avoid the risk of inadvertent escalation.
Paris is paying particular attention to Germany given its large defense budget – 780 billion euros over five years until the end of 2030 – and its ambitious armaments plans.
"It would be much better to have a clear and fairly open doctrine, so that the Russians would never make mistakes in their signals or misunderstand them," noted one of the publication's interlocutors.
In turn, a senior German official said that Berlin "absolutely agrees" that European capitals need "a common doctrine and a common understanding of the scale of escalation."
He added that official talks had stalled because of the internal debate in France over the future of its nuclear strategy, but had now picked up.