PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced $7.5 billion in extra military spending in the next two years because of new and unprecedented threats, ranging from Russia to nuclear proliferation, terrorists and online attacks.

The French leader laid out the spending plans in a sweeping speech calling for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion. He said France will aim to spend $74.8 billion in annual defense spending in 2027, the last year of his second term. That would be double the 32 billion euros in annual spending when he became president in 2017.

“Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,” Macron said. “We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.”

“To be free in this world, we must be feared. To be feared, we must be powerful,.”

He insisted that France can find the money to spend more on the military even as it tries to bring down massive national debts.

— The Associated Press