PARIS — France will send the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Mediterranean as war expands in the Middle East, President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech on Tuesday night.
With the Strait of Hormuz closed and the Suez Canal and Red Sea threatened, France is also working on a coalition to pool assets, including military, that will allow shipping traffic to resume, Macron said in the televised speech.
“Faced with this unstable situation and the uncertainties of the days ahead, I have given orders for the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean,” Macron said.
The nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts are being rerouted from the Baltic and the Northern Atlantic, where the carrier group had been set to participate in multiple NATO missions. The air group embarked on France’s only carrier typically consists of Rafale jets and E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, as well as several helicopters.
The deployed carrier strike group included the Italian destroyer Andrea Doria as well as the French frigate L’Amiral Ronarc’h, according to the French Navy. The group also included the frigates Alsace and Chevalier Paul, as well as the oiler Jacques Chevallier, according to French media reports.
Macron said France has economic interests to protect, with oil prices, natural gas prices and international trade “profoundly” disrupted by the war between the U.S. and Israel against Iran.
“We are taking the initiative to build a coalition to pool resources, including military resources, to resume and secure traffic in these maritime routes that are essential to the global economy,” Macron said. “This is what we were able to do several months ago in the Red Sea. This is what we must do there today.”
French forces, which are deployed across several bases in the Middle East, downed drones “in legitimate defense” from the very first hours of the conflict between the U.S. and Israel with Iran, to protect the airspace of its allies, Macron said. France in recent hours sent additional Rafale jets, air-defense systems and radars to the region, the president said.
“It’s crucial that we ensure freedom of movement in the Strait of Hormuz because we are all affected,” retired Air Force Gen. Patrick Dutartre said on French television.
With European Union member Cyprus also struck in recent days, France will also send additional air-defense assets to the island, as well as the air-defense frigate Languedoc, which should arrive off the coast of Cyprus as early as this evening, Macron said.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
