Speech by Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, at Cherbourg on 21 March 2008 at the presentation of the SSBN Le Terrible.
France Will not Lower its Guard
I am very proud to be here with you in Cherbourg to salute all those who built Le Terrible, the fourth and latest addition to our strategic fleet. Right here, in 1967, General de Gaulle came to pay tribute to those who had built Le Redoutable. Like your predecessors, you may take pride in this submarine—a symbol of France’s high technology and resolve to remain master of its destiny. Very few countries in the world have the ability to realise such an industrial and technological achievement. It took decades of effort to master such know-how, which some of our partners have neglected and thus have difficulty replicating. I want to tell you today how proud France is of you. I have come here on behalf of France to pay tribute to your work and your great accomplishments.
Our nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) are an essential part of our nuclear deterrent capability. We owe it to our country’s workers, technicians, engineers, men and women in uniform, and scientists—military and civilian. I have come to tell you that maintaining, at the highest level, the capabilities required for deterrence is an objective that is fundamental to our security.
I wish to pay tribute to the memory of the 11 French citizens—your colleagues, friends, husbands and fathers—who died in the Karachi attack on 8 May 2002. I know that their loved ones are here with us today. I told them that I, along with the Defence Minister, would meet with them within the next two weeks at the Elysée to review the progress of the investigation. I want to convey my deepest sympathies to them. The nation has not forgotten them and will never forget them.
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