Frances' parliament approves multi-billion-euro military spending boost, spurred by Russia's war in Ukraine

President Emmanuel Macron, as well as France's Parliament, approved a multi-billion-euro spending boost to the country's military budget through 2030.

He has argued the boost was needed to ensure "our freedom, our security, our prosperity, our place in the world." The defense minister has compared it to France’s push in the 1960s to develop nuclear weapons, making the country one of the world’s bigger military powers.

The new military plan includes doubling the number of military reservists and reinforcing cyberdefense, as well as increasing weapons production capacity both to help Ukraine and to keep the French military adequately supplied.