France will welcome athletes from all over the world. But also part of the planet’s uniforms. Several foreign countries will send soldiers to French territory to help secure the Olympic Games (July 26 – August 11), a huge challenge as France has returned to the highest level since Sunday, “emergency attack”, of the Vigipirate plan two days after the attack claimed by the Islamic State group in Moscow.
Among the nations concerned, Poland, which announced its presence in the Olympic system on Thursday afternoon. “The Polish armed forces will join the international coalition set up by France to support the preparation and security of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games,” Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak said on the social network Kamysz. Contacted by Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui in France, the Ministry of the Armed Forces confirmed that several other countries would join the effort, without specifying which ones.
Dogs among the reinforcements
The effort beyond borders will not be limited to the armed forces. The Ministry of the Interior launched at the beginning of January “a request for nearly 2,185 reinforcements” from “46 foreign partners”. More than 35 have already responded favorably to the French requests. “In order to take into account the spectator experience, respond to the capacity challenge of the Games and strengthen international cooperation,” underlines Beauvau, who plans to deploy around 35,000 members of the police during the Olympics, and until 45,000 on the day of the opening ceremony on the Seine.
During the Rugby World Cup, around 160 representatives of European security forces joined the territory, in particular to supervise supporters from the British Isles. During the Euro 2016 football tournament organized in France, 180 foreign police officers joined the competition’s security system. But more to flush out potential hooligans. France, for its part, sent 226 people to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, including 167 gendarmes in charge of the fight against drones.
Some of the most anticipated reinforcements during the Olympics will advance on four legs. “Several foreign nations will strengthen us in certain critical areas, such as dog capabilities, where the needs are enormous,” says the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Around forty foreign military dog teams are expected. Valuable dogs for sniffing out possible explosives with their noses, which Poland will send, but also for guarding and patrolling missions.
Some foreign police officers could be armed
A disavowal for France, which in one year went from 10,000 to 18,000 soldiers on deck for the event, forced to draw from neighboring armies and security forces? “This is a classic approach for host countries to organize major international events,” underlines the Ministry of the Interior. He has already started discussions with his foreign counterparts, in particular on the possibility of some foreign police officers being armed. Beauvau does not close the door, in particular for the delegations most exposed to potential terrorist attacks.
Foreign law enforcement agencies will be able to deploy around places where their compatriots will be present. Agents of the German federal police will, for example, invest the Jean-Bouin stadium, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the usual enclosure of the Stade Français chosen by the Olympic committee across the Rhine as a nerve center for its athletes capable of welcoming 17,000 people during the OJ. Germany is also one of the countries which must help secure the cities where the competition will take place. The main concern of the French authorities at the moment.
