President of France Emmanuel Macron announced on January 20 that 400 billion euros ($433.16 billion) would be earmarked for the defense budget from 2024 to 2030, up from 295 billion euros for the period from 2019 to 2025.
Macron said that if the defense bill for 2019-2025 is aimed at starting to build contingency capacity after decades of underinvestment or budget cuts, a new defense budget for 2024-2030 is “a program of transformation” so that the military can adapt to the potential for high-intensity conflicts. President Macron affirmed that France will have a military strong enough to be ready to face the challenges of this century.
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Last October, the French government announced the 2023 budget bill, in which France’s defense budget is expected to be raised to an all-time high of 43.9 billion euros to raise combat capacity and military modernization in the face of the possibility that the conflict in Ukraine could spread.
Over the past 5 years, defense budget France has raised a total of more than 9 billion euros, or 25%, and is the most invested sector today. If you add up the extraordinary additional expenditures for both the army and defense, the increase comes to 26 billion euros.
Thanh Binh (VNA/Vietnam+)