Macron’s State Visit and the Case for a Deeper Korea-France Security Partnership

President Macron’s first visit to South Korea in nearly a decade opens a window for structural defence cooperation – from conventional arms to submarine propulsion – that neither side can afford to miss.

When French President Emmanuel Macron touched down in Seoul on April 2, the optics were unmistakable. Coming just a month after his landmark speech at the Île Longue naval base — in which he announced the first increase in France’s nuclear warhead count since 1992 and unveiled a doctrine of dissuasion avancée — the French president’s arrival on the Korean Peninsula was not routine diplomacy. It was a strategic signal.