Paris, 20 January 2006: The President of the WEU Assembly, Jean-Pierre Masseret (France, Socialist) today issued the following press release:

“President Chirac’s Ile-Longue speech, in which he reaffirmed the basis of France’s defence posture, clarifies the framework for the use of France’s nuclear capability. The new threats that surround the country at the present time, which it would be irresponsible not to acknowledge, justify such clarification. Putting that capability potentially into a European perspective, worked out in consultation with our allies, provides the starting point for a productive debate. As President of the parliamentary Assembly of WEU – the Interparliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly, I am sure that this rhymes with Europe’s interests.

Nuclear weapons today, in a world shaken by all kinds of disorders, represent the most credible guarantee of the independence, security and autonomy of national decision-making. They remain a major asset to France, a country which is deeply committed to peace and the peaceful settlement of conflict. As a French member of Parliament I therefore fully support the commitment to modernise our arsenal through the key M-51 and ASMP programmes. That commitment lends weight to France’s voice in the world, as well as strengthening that of Europe.

President Chirac is acting within his constitutional brief when he extends, as he has done, the notion of vital interest to guaranteeing strategic supplies and to the defence of allied nations. These “expressions” of deterrence do not change its basis. Nevertheless, the strategic thinking on the use of nuclear weapons –because of their importance and because of the issues they raise – deserves to be discussed not only in France, in parliament, but elsewhere in Europe, between governments and parliaments and at the interparliamentary level in the context of a reasoned debate. The Assembly over which I preside is ready to take part in that debate.”