French media: French National Day Parade, Indonesian Army as the Pioneer, French Forces Show Reliability in a Brute World

On Monday, the traditional July 14th National Day parade was held in Paris, the day after President Macron promised to further increase defense spending. Faced with an increasingly brutal and arrogant world, this year's National Day parade aims to demonstrate the "readiness for war" of the French military.

The 2025 French National Day parade was opened by the Indonesian army, the guest country. More than 450 Indonesian soldiers, including the drum band (drumband) musicians wearing colorful uniforms and various colored helmets (tiger head, eagle head, walrus head or shark head), announced the start of the parade in front of French President Macron, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and Emir of Kuwait Sabah.

Paris and Jakarta have formed a strategic partnership and play an important role in the Indo-Pacific.

General Loïc Mathon, the military governor of Paris, said that this year's parade is "a real military operation," reflecting the severity of the threats to security on the European continent.

President Macron told senior officers on Sunday, "Since 1945, freedom has never been under such a great threat," and he specifically mentioned the "persistent threat" posed by Russia to the European continent.

The recently released "National Strategy Review" stated, "It is now clear that we are entering a new era, a period of particularly high risk of large-scale, high-intensity wars outside Europe."

The document predicts, "By 2030, France and its European allies will be involved, and our territory will simultaneously become the target of large-scale hybrid operations."

Macron said, "Europe is in danger because the war in Ukraine has reached our land, and the uncertainty about whether the United States will continue to support us has increased," "Our Europe finds itself at the edge of a huge crisis arc."

Therefore, France plans to increase its defense budget, adding 3.5 billion euros in 2026 and another 3 billion euros in 2027. Thus, the French defense budget will almost double within Macron's two terms of ten years, reaching nearly 64 billion euros.

Source: rfi

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1837626879788250/

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