{"id":5078,"date":"2026-04-09T11:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=5078"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:22:18","slug":"open-war-with-russia-a-primary-concern-french-army-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/open-war-with-russia-a-primary-concern-french-army-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Open war with Russia a \u2018primary concern\u2019 \u2013 French Army chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris is looking to increase its military budget and shift to a \u201cwar economy\u201d to address a supposed threat from Moscow, according to media reports<\/strong><\/p>\n

France\u2019s top military commander has told the country\u2019s parliament that the prospect of a direct conflict with Russia is his \u201cprimary concern,\u201d<\/em> insisting on ramping up military spending as Paris reportedly prepares to shift to a \u201cwar economy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

General Fabien Mandon, the chief of staff of the French Armed Forces, made the statement during a hearing before the National Assembly\u2019s Defense Committee about a proposed update to the 2024-2030 military programming and budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn open war with Russia remains my primary concern in terms of preparing the armed forces,\u201d<\/em> he told lawmakers, pointing to what he called \u201cthe continued presence of a Russian threat on our continent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Mandon, who had previously warned of a potential \u201cclash in three or four years\u201d<\/em> with Moscow, insisted that France is in a \u201cdangerous period\u201d<\/em> and desperately needs more investment in the military.<\/p>\n

The general\u2019s remarks come as the French government has announced a revised long-term military budget that would see it spend an additional \u20ac36 billion ($42 billion) on weapons, pushing annual spending to \u20ac76.3 billion by 2030, or 2.5% of GDP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
German \u2018militaristic frenzy\u2019 could end in tragedy \u2013 Moscow<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

France seeks to grow its arsenal of explosive drones by 400%, the number of guided bombs by 240%, and the number of Scalp cruise missiles by 85% by 2030, according to a 64-page-long document seen by Politico.<\/p>\n

The shift is being carried out \u201cwith a view to preparing for a \u2018war economy\u2019,\u201d<\/em> the document read.\u00a0<\/p>\n

France\u2019s rearmament push comes amid a wider European militarization trend as Germany is also undergoing a massive buildup, with Berlin planning to spend more than \u20ac500 billion on defense by 2029 and aiming to increase its active troops from 180,000 to over 260,000 by 2035.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moscow has consistently dismissed Western allegations of an imminent Russian attack as \u201cnonsense,\u201d<\/em> arguing that such claims are used to justify record military spending, distract from domestic problems, and whip up anti-Russian hysteria. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in February that Moscow \u201chas no intention of attacking any part of Europe\u201d<\/em> and has \u201cabsolutely no reason to do so.\u201d<\/em> He warned, however, that if European nations launch an attack on Russia, \u201cthere will be a full-scale military response with all available military means.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris is looking to increase its military budget and shift to a \u201cwar economy\u201d to address a supposed threat from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5082,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions\/5082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}