President Emmanuel Macron announced that France already has cut in the atomic arsenal to under 300 warheads.

“France has cut nuclear arsenal to under 300 warheads,” said Emmanuel Macron in an address to military officers graduating in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Friday that European nations “cannot remain spectators” faced with a potential nuclear arms race, urging them to push an “international arms control agenda”.

“Europeans must realise collectively that in the absence of a legal framework, they could rapidly face a new race for conventional weapons, even nuclear weapons, on their own soil,” Macron said in a speech laying out France”s post-Brexit strategy for its nuclear arsenal.

He added that France had already reduced its number of warheads to under 300, giving France “the legitimacy to demand concrete moves from other nuclear powers toward global disarmament that is gradual, credible and can be verified”.

The French president also proposed a budget of around €37 billion in order to modernize France’s nuclear capabilities as it remains the only nuclear power state in the European Union following Brexit.