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Paris -

French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecornu, announced - the day before yesterday, Tuesday - that he is seriously considering sending requests to manufacturers in the arms sector to speed up production, for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The pressure that the minister is trying to exert is considered a concrete step in the wake of the statements made by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in June 2022 in support of Kiev, which is to adopt what he called the “war economy.”

While LeCorno insists on the necessity of rearmament, he warns at the same time of the emergence of a security context and major tensions between world powers, noting that "the war in Ukraine reopens the door to the form of the Cold War period again against the backdrop of the Russian nuclear bunker."

The minister stressed - during an unprecedented press conference in Paris at the headquarters of the Army General Staff - the necessity of “producing more and faster” in order to ensure the army’s needs and maintain Ukraine’s support.

Licorno (fourth from right) in a press conference in support of Ukraine (Al Jazeera)

Poor efficiency

In this regard, Senator Gilbert Roger, former Deputy Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee, says that increasing production and costs is not impossible, “as Western countries did the same thing during World War II.”

He explained - in his speech to Al Jazeera Net - that the minister is putting pressure on companies “because we are in a situation that requires providing immediate aid to Ukraine and we cannot wait for the books to be filled with requests,” adding that the European Union has opened a fairly large credit line (more than 3 billion dollars) to purchase military equipment. “Inflation rates will not prevent countries from producing more and helping Kiev.”

For his part, former Foreign Ministry advisor Manaf Kilani believes that the press conference is a “political declaration to cover the army’s nakedness” because the country does not have the necessary means for its armies, especially with regard to military capabilities, such as the “EMX” planes that the Russians destroyed.

The reason behind the poor performance and efficiency of French weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine is that they are “old and ineffective because they were adapted exclusively for the colonial campaigns they carried out from the 1960s until now,” according to the same spokesman.

Kilani also described the minister's statements as "false, misleading, and divorced from reality," pointing out that the military profession in France no longer attracts citizens after a number of officers resigned and the army is finding it difficult to recruit new members.

The Secretary of the Armed Forces announced “for the first time” that he can use what is permitted by the Military Programming Act, which was adopted last fall, to impose requests to accelerate military production and exercise the right to determine priorities, explaining that the requests in question may relate to “personnel, stocks, production tools, or Even goods and services that the state appropriates for vital strategic reasons.”

Regarding the pace of military production, LeCorno said he aims to prioritize military needs over civilian ones to speed up production.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Kilani criticized this law, which was voted on by the National Assembly without the objection of any of the representatives, even though it “gives the state the right to make this type of decision and do what it wants, which is unprecedented in Western democracy.”

The former advisor considered that the implementation of the military programming law also comes within “justification for the shortfall or poor implementation of the 2023 and 2024 budget” to say that preparing ourselves to defend Europe and Ukraine is a top priority.

By applying this law, the government can decide to request “in the event of a threat, current and foreseeable, affecting activities essential to the life of the nation, for the protection of the population and territorial integrity” or “of a nature that justifies the implementation of the State’s international obligations in matters of defense.”

Support Ukraine

France has reached an agreement with Ukraine and Denmark to finance and deliver 78 Caesar self-propelled howitzers to Kiev to enhance its supply of missiles and meet its urgent needs for ammunition against Russian forces, the French minister announced on Tuesday.

The Ministry also specified the form of its support for Ukraine, including the production of 100,000 155 mm shells this year, with 80,000 of them allocated to Ukraine, compared to 30,000 it has received since the beginning of the war on February 24, 2022.

Kilani reads what is happening as saying that France has taken Germany's place to implement and implement American policy plans on the European continent, explaining that the Germans "were able to justify their moderate participation in the Ukrainian war after they deliberately leaked the conversation between senior officers of their air force a few weeks ago."

The former State Department advisor ruled out NATO members' use of Article 5 of the alliance's founding treaty - which stipulates the obligation to mutual protection - because "everyone is hiding behind their finger," thus following the "Obama Doctrine," that is, leading from behind and not engaging directly in the war, as he put it.

Paris considered publishing news of a possible war to destabilize the government and strengthen Putin’s allies in France (European)

Russian threat

Commenting on the recent tensions between France and Russia, the former senator believes that it has prompted pressure to produce more military equipment, pointing out “the need to take the process of rearmament and industrial strengthening into consideration by all private sector partners because we need more submarines and drones.” .

Regarding the recent spread of news about the possibility of war in Europe on social media, Senator Roger stressed that maintaining calm is essential in the face of “fake news that Moscow is trying to export to the world,” anticipating at the same time that France will witness much greater misinformation as the Olympic Games in Paris approach.

He added that the goal of publishing this news is to "destabilize the government and strengthen the power of friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and by that I mean to indirectly help Marine Le Pen and her followers."

On the other hand, Counselor Kilani considered that France was on a slippery slope towards open confrontation with Russia since 2014 after it canceled the order for the Mistral aircraft carrier, “which led to it losing credibility and sovereignty over its means and capabilities, whether military, political or economic, because it only follows NATO orders, which is An American organization at the end of the day.”

Source: Al Jazeera