France Shoots Down Drone Over Latvia, Passes Defense Budget

France's armed forces sat at the centre of NATO's eastern-flank posture on June 8. Two French Rafale fighters flying the alliance's Baltic Air Policing mission from Siauliai in Lithuania shot down a foreign drone over eastern Latvia -- the first time NATO aircraft have destroyed a drone over Latvian territory -- after the Latvian military said it had been pushed across the border by Russian electromagnetic warfare. The French defence staff cast the interception as a "demonstration of the French Armed Forces' commitment to contributing to the security of Europe's eastern flank," the work of a detachment that, between May 28 and June 4, had already intercepted multiple Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic without flight plans or radio contact.

The same waters saw the start of BALTOPS 2026, the alliance's 55th annual Baltic naval exercise, as 20 warships and around 6,000 personnel from 15 nations sailed from the Polish port of Gdynia. For the first time since 1972 the drill is run day to day from NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum; its deputy commander, Lieutenant General John Mead, said the first of its objectives was to "deter Russian threats in the Baltic Sea region."

The forward deployments unfolded as the politics of paying for them played out in Paris. France's parliament adopted a long-delayed 2026 budget on Monday, clearing the way for the higher military spending President Emmanuel Macron has promised in response to Russia's war and Middle East instability, with the defence ministry set to receive an additional 6.7 billion euros over 2025. Holding no majority in the National Assembly, Macron's government won passage only through costly concessions to the Socialists -- most symbolically, the suspension of his unpopular reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron, 48, enters the final year of his term in spring 2027 having largely withdrawn from domestic politics since his 2024 snap election left parliament deadlocked and toppled successive governments over budget disputes.