Macron Announces France's Voluntary Military Service Amid Russia's Threat

French President Emmanuel Macron will announce plans for a new national voluntary military service on Thursday, as France seeks to strengthen its armed forces to address growing concerns over Russia's threats to European countries outside the war in Ukraine.

Macron stressed the need to prepare the nation for a growing threat, the presidential office said in a statement ahead of its visit to the Varces military base, in the French Alps.

Earlier this year, Macron announced its intention to provide new opportunities for French youths to serve voluntarily in the military.

The mandatory military, which ended in France in 1996, was not considered.

France is trying to increase its defenses as Russia's war in Ukraine put the European continent at a "big risk," Macron said.

"On the day you send a signal of weakness to Russia which for 10 years has made a strategic choice to return to being an imperial force, namely advancing wherever we are weak well, Russia will continue to advance," he told RTL radio.

Macron previously announced an additional military budget of 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in the next two years.

He said France would target an annual defense expenditure of 64 billion euros by 2027, the final year of their second term.

This figure will double the annual expenditure of 32 billion euros when he became president in 2017.

The French military currently consists of about 200,000 active personnel and more than 40,000 reserve personnel, making it the second-largest in the European Union, just behind Poland. France wants to increase the number of reserve personnel to 100,000 by 2030.

The new French Army Chief of Staff, General Fabien Mandon, last week sent a warning about the country's need to be prepared to "loss its children" in the event of a potential conflict with Russia statements sparking condemnation across the political spectrum.

Russia annexed 20% of the territory of Georgia in 2008, the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in 2014, and launched a massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022, General Mandon said.