Overview
- President Emmanuel Macron ordered the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group to leave planned North Atlantic and Baltic duties and head to the Mediterranean.
- France is seeking to assemble a coalition to pool resources to restore and secure commercial traffic on threatened routes.
- The carrier group includes Italy’s destroyer Andrea Doria and French escorts, according to the French Navy.
- France will reinforce Cyprus with air-defense assets, with the frigate Languedoc set to arrive off the island imminently, and it is sending additional Rafale jets and radars to the region.
- Paris says key waterways are at risk, citing a closed Strait of Hormuz and threats to the Suez Canal and Red Sea, and it plans to deploy two more surface combatants to the Red Sea in support of the EU mission ASPIDES.