Nov. 27 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday the creation of a new voluntary military service amid concerns about a possible confrontation with Russia.
Calling it an “act of trust in our youth,” Macron made the announcement in a speech to troops stationed at a base just outside of Grenoble in southeast France, the BBC reported.
The new service will launch next summer, offering monthly payments to recruits, mostly aged 18 and 19, of at least 800 euros, or about $930, a month for 10 months of training, according to the BBC.
“The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,” Macron said. “We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected.”
The new initiative seeks to recruit 3,000 initial volunteers and steadily increase to 50,000 youth joining by 2035, “depending on evolving threats,” with volunteers having the option to stay in the military or become reservists, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We can’t go back to the times of conscription, but we’re in need of mobilization,” Macron said.
Macron has actively sought to bolster Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s ongoing invasion. France recently signed a deal to sell Ukraine 100 advanced fighter jets. More broadly, Macron helped spearhead the creation of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing,” a group of 34 mostly European countries willing to offer more security backing to Ukraine.
In his speech, Macron did not call out Russia, but said he was launching the initiative “at a time when all our European allies are moving forward in the face of a threat that weighs on us all, France cannot remain immobile,” The New York Times reported.
Other European countries, including Germany, Denmark and Poland, have looked into ways to increase the ranks of their respective armed forces, according to the Times.
Speaking during a press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that he was planning to attack Europe.
However, the specter of a confrontation between Russia and France has loomed, according to the BBC.
Recently, Gen Fabien Mandon, France’s chief of staff, raised alarms when he said the French military was planning around the assumption of a conflict with Russia in the coming years.