Nicolas Sarkozy explained that by reducing France's airborne force of nuclear weapons by a third, it would leave less than 300 warheads, mostly on board submarines, and the French president also said: "By giving this information, France is fully transparent since it has no other weapons than those in its operational stocks."
However, President Nicolas Sarkozy also said that he was bound to maintain a French nuclear deterrent, because it was France’s "life-insurance policy".
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech on France's nuclear deterrent was the first he had addressed on the matter since becoming president last May, and he also added that military spending needed to be reviewed.
