Frédéric Bernard

Diplomate @francediplo 🇫🇷 - Asie et Océanie - Niçois - Compte personnel/Personal account - Language enthusiast 🇨🇳🇩🇪🇲🇾/🇮🇩

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

We took part in France’s military parade marking Bastille Day. Today, Ukrainian warriors also marched ceremonially down the Champs-Élysées, while our pilots flew Mirage fighter jets as part of joint French-Ukrainian crews.

It is a great honor for us to be here. Emmanuel’s invitation to our defenders is a sign of respect and recognition of the strength of Ukraine, our people, and our Armed Forces. We thank our warriors. We thank France and all our partners who stand with Ukraine.

🇺🇦🇫🇷

[France Diplomatie 🇫🇷🇪🇺 @francediplo]

La coalition des volontaires ?
35 chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement réunis à Paris avec un objectif : soutenir l’Ukraine et protéger le continent européen.

Et la France est moteur dans ce mouvement.

[Frédéric Bernard @frediplo_b]

@ClaireMartel47 @GerardAraud https://t.co/uGsqnoDBjp

[Frédéric Bernard @frediplo_b]

@ClaireMartel47 @GerardAraud D’autant que le temps n’est pas nécessairement l‘allié des 🇩🇪 : les investissements massifs et le développement des capacités industrielles qui en découle n‘achèteront pas les nécessaires adaptations doctrinales et les capacités de planification indépendantes (en veulent-ils?)

[La France en Espagne 🇫🇷🇪🇸 @france_espagne]

Sin querer entrar en una polémica, conviene recordar los hechos:
Todos los jugadores de la selección francesa son franceses. De los 26 jugadores, 23 nacieron en Francia. Los 3 que nacieron en el exterior son franceses también.
@francediplo @equipedefrance @kareen_rispal

[Lustu @lustuuu]

Voilà où était l’avion au moment de l’heure légale de la fermeture de la CTR de Figari.

[Association des Jeunes Diplomates @A_Jeunes_Diplos]

L’AJD a eu le plaisir de découvrir jeudi dernier des trésors culturels de Chypre à @laBnF et au @MuseeLouvre à l’occasion de la présidence chypriote du Conseil de l’UE.🇨🇾

Un grand merci à l’ambassade de @CyprusinFrance et à l’Académie diplomatique et consulaire de @francediplo !

[French defense attaché in SINGAPORE @FR_DA_Singapore]

🇫🇷🇸🇬 Dédicace d'une salle de réunion à la mémoire de Juliette Josso, stagiaire à la mission de défense.

Pensées de soutien à sa famille de la part de toute l'ambassade.
@FranceinSG

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

La Suède a fait le choix de la frégate de défense et d'intervention de Naval Group pour moderniser sa marine.

Je remercie la Suède et je mesure la confiance faite à la France.

Après le choix fait par la France de se doter du Global Eye de Saab pour renouveler sa flotte d'avions radar Awacs, c'est une décision stratégique majeure, qui traduit la confiance mutuelle entre nos deux pays.

Notre partenariat n’a en effet cessé de se renforcer ces dernières années jusqu’à la participation de la Suède à la dissuasion avancée.

Une Europe forte et souveraine au sein de l'OTAN : voilà notre conception de notre défense et de notre sécurité commune. Elle se bâtit chaque jour.

[Mikaa Blugeon-Mered @Mikaa_BM]

Pays à l'honneur de la conférence #FutureGreenland aujourd'hui et demain, la 🇫🇷 et le 🇬🇱 ont signé une nouvelle déclaration d'intention sur les minerais, métaux critiques, éducation, recherche…

C'est une extension du périmètre de l'accord BRGM-Bureau des Mines signé en Mars. 👏

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

Le caporal-chef Anicet Girardin du 132ème régiment d’infanterie cynotechnique de Suippes, rapatrié hier du Liban où il avait été gravement blessé par des combattants du Hezbollah, est mort ce matin des suites de ses blessures.

Il est mort pour la France.

La Nation, qui rendra demain un hommage à l’adjudant Florian Montorio mortellement touché au cours de la même embuscade, salue avec émotion la mémoire du caporal-chef Anicet Girardin et son sacrifice. Elle adresse également ses pensées les plus sincères et sa profonde compassion à sa famille, à ses proches, ainsi qu’aux familles des autres blessés.

Elle rend hommage à l’engagement exemplaire de nos armées au sein de la FINUL, qui œuvrent avec courage et détermination au service de la France et de la paix au Liban.

[Élysée @Elysee]

France and the United Kingdom convened 51 countries to launch an initiative for maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict must be resolved through diplomatic means in order to ensure peace and security for all. The statement: https://t.co/hpU8EsiShM

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

Priorities

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

On April 10, the French Armed Forces declassified footage of Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters and Rafale fighters shooting down Iranian Shahed drones over the Persian Gulf. The Tigers used 30mm cannons. The Rafales used MICA air-to-air missiles. These are the first confirmed combat air-to-air kills in the Tiger helicopter’s operational history. A platform designed to destroy Soviet armor in the Fulda Gap just earned its first kills shooting down Iranian suicide drones over the skies of the United Arab Emirates.

France says this is not war. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated on March 2 that France “stands ready to take part in their defense” for Gulf states under bilateral defense agreements. The operations are framed as strictly defensive under collective self-defense principles. No declaration of war. No offensive strikes on Iranian territory. Four Tiger helicopters were deployed on March 30 specifically to ease the burden on Rafales, which had been depleting their interceptor missiles at an unsustainable rate since the war began on February 28.

And here is the structural paradox that the declassification forces into view.

France is on Trump’s NATO punishment list. The Wall Street Journal reported the administration is considering relocating US troops away from allies deemed “unhelpful” during the Iran war, with France specifically named for imposing conditions on a US airbase in southern France. Trump posted: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM.” Leavitt said NATO was “tested and failed.” France is being punished for not supporting the war.

France is also shooting down Iranian drones in combat. It has approximately 900 military personnel in the UAE. It operates Rafales from Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi. It lost a soldier on March 12 in Erbil when an Iranian-linked militia drone struck a French position. France has a combat casualty in a war it officially has not joined.

France refused to let American planes use its airspace for offensive operations against Iran. France is using its own planes for defensive operations against Iran. The distinction is legally real and operationally meaningless. Every Shahed drone that a French Tiger shoots down is one fewer drone threatening the UAE infrastructure that French defense contracts helped build, that French arms exports worth billions depend on, and that French energy imports partially flow through.

France’s arms exports hit a record €26.9 billion in 2025. The UAE’s Rafale deal alone was worth €16.9 billion in a prior cycle. Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia are all major French defense customers. The declassified footage is not just a military document. It is a live-fire product demonstration broadcast to every Gulf procurement office on the same day the Islamabad talks begin. The Tiger just proved it can kill drones in contested airspace. The Rafale just proved it can intercept Shaheds with precision missiles. Every defense ministry in the region is watching.

Trump is punishing France for not joining his war. France is defending the countries his war is supposed to protect. The soldier France lost in Erbil died in a conflict France says is not its own. And the footage France released on April 10 shows French weapons killing Iranian weapons over allied territory while French diplomats insist they are not at war with Iran.

The word for this is not neutrality. It is not alliance. It is the space between the two that only a country with €26.9 billion in arms exports and 900 troops in Abu Dhabi can occupy.

https://t.co/0fIdGsM5qH

[Cap-Hornier 🌊⚓️ @CapHornier_]

As French bashing is at its best today (again), with a lot of completely made up quotes, in particular, the false statement of US Gen Schwarzkopf ("Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion…"), HERE is what Schwarzkopf said about French Army in 1991

[Martin Briens @martin_briens]

Entretien avec le Vice-ministre indonésien 🇮🇩 des Affaires étrangères, M. Armanatha NASIR : l'occasion de rappeler notre engagement commun pour une #réforme des Nations Unies et convergences sur les dangers que fait peser le conflit au M-O sur l'économie et la sécurité mondiale

[Air Power @RealAirPower1]

Charles de Gaulle may not be in the Gulf, but France is very much in the fight. French Rafales operating out of the UAE have, in the last three weeks, reportedly downed 60+ Iranian Shahed-136s using MICA missiles - the Dassault Rafale is quietly making a very loud statement about the jet’s bite.

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

Thanks for the highlight.
Ships bound for the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Not Hormuz.
This is the 🇫🇷 Jeanne d’Arc naval task group, deployed for 5-month across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
⚓️ A double mission :
✔️ defend & protect our national interests 
🤝🏼 train French cadets, enhance multilateral partnership & share military maritime expertise.

[Frédéric Bernard @frediplo_b]

@JulienCePain @blytzir @Defense137 Tapez « Rafale nounou » sur Google et vous comprendrez…

[Tom Antonov @Tom_Antonov]

Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in April 2026.
#FrenchAura