France said Friday it had begun to reduce its own arsenal long before US President Barack Obama called for a "world without nuclear weapons", as a leaked memo showed Paris unimpressed by his speech. According to the daily Le Figaro, President Nicolas Sarkozys foreign policy advisers were dismissive of Obamas call for an end to the arms race, which he made to a cheering crowd of supporters in Prague on Sunday.
In a memo for the president, the team said US nuclear policy had moved on little from the era of Obamas predecessor George W. Bush and that the speech was the "export version, designed to burnish the image of the US abroad." According to a leaked version of the text, cited by the paper, Sarkozys advisers noted that while France had halted nuclear testing in 1996, the US Senate has thus far held up Washingtons approval of a test ban treaty.
They also criticised delays in US strategic disarmament talks with Russia and said Obamas ideas to reinforce non-proliferation measures - such as the creation of global nuclear fuel bank - had been kicking around for a while. "Lets leave the theology to one side and work seriously on disarmament," the memo said, dismissing Obamas optimistic rhetoric, according to Le Figaro.
Foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier would not address the leaked memo directly, but in a lengthy response to reporters made it clear France had not waited for Obamas speech before taking disarmament seriously. "France was the first country to sign and ratify the test ban treaty and the only officially nuclear-armed state to have dismantled its test centres," Chevallier said, in response to questions on the French memo.
"Were the only state to have precisely confirmed its number of warheads. We have dismantled our plants for making weapons-grade fissile material ... and weve reduced our force posture," he added. France also poured cold water on the idea that disarmament measures by declared nuclear powers would aid non-proliferation work by persuading rogue states and terrorist groups to drop their own weapons programmes.
"We dont believe theres a link between disarmament and the proliferation question," the spokesman said. France has an estimated 300 nuclear weapons, a much smaller arsenal than Russia or the United States, but more than the other declared and presumed nuclear powers, China, Britain, Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea. Sarkozy pledged last year to cut back Frances nuclear stockpile, but remains committed to retaining an independent deterrent based on four ballistic missile submarines and several dozen jet fighter-bombers.