Emmanuel Macron has approved the creation of a space command within the French air force to improve the country’s defence capabilities.

The new unit is likely to be seen as rivalling a similar one being set up by Donald Trump and another step towards a creeping arms race in space. The two leaders have clashed in recent months despite previous good relations and macho back-slapping during the French president’s state visit to Washington.

Addressing military personnel a day before a Bastille Day parade, Mr Macron said the new military doctrine setting up a space command would strengthen protection of French satellites.

In 2017, Paris said it suspected Russia was trying to intercept secret communications when it flew a spy probe close to a European satellite 22,000 miles above the Earth.

“To give substance to this doctrine and ensure the development and reinforcement of our space capabilities, a space command will be created next September in the air force,” Mr Macron said, adding that it would later become the Space and Air Force.

Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Show all 8 1 /8 Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr sitting in his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule, ready for launch on 5 May 1961. Just 23 days earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first man in space. After several delays and more than four hours in the capsule, Shepard was ready to go, and he famously urged mission controllers to “fix your little problem and light this candle”. Pictures by Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Wernher von Braun (centre) explains the Saturn rocket system to President John F Kennedy at Launch Complex 37 while the president tours the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, on 16 November 1963 Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A back-up copy of the first Russian Sputnik (satellite, right), and a small replica of the second Russian satellite displayed in a small museum in the cosmonaut training centre in Star City outside Moscow. The second satellite was launched just a month later on 3 November 1957 with dog Laika on board. EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Jet propulsion laboratory director William Pickering (left), Dr James Van Allen (centre), and Dr Wernher von Braun (right) hold up a model of the first US satellite Explorer 1, which successfully launched on 31 January 1958 Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry President Kennedy speaks to the nation at the joint session of congress, in Washington, DC, on 25 May 1961, where he said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Nasa/EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A visitor passes in front of a picture of Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut of the USSR, inside the Vostok 1 command capsule on display at the exhibition “The way of Gagarin – achievement of Russian manned cosmonautics” in Moscow. On 12 April 1961, Gagarin performed a space flight aboard the Vostok-1 spacecraft, orbiting Earth in 108 minutes and landing safely near Smelovka village in the Saratov region's Ternovsky district. EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry A model of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC EPA Race to Space: US and Soviet Union's Cold War rivalry Full length image of US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr Nasa/EPA

Russia previously warned of an “arms race” in space when Mr Trump announced a new missile defence strategy involving orbiting sensors, accusing Washington of attempting to resurrect Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” plan.

Russia and China have proposed an international treaty that would ban space-based weapons.

The French military spending programme for 2019 to 2025 has earmarked €3.6bn (£3.23bn) for investments and renewal of French satellites.

Florence Parly, the French defence minister, said last year she was committed to giving the country strategic space autonomy in the face of growing threats from other powers amid a race in space militarisation.

Mr Trump said when he announced the US initiative last June: “It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space.”

He also promised that the US would return Americans to the Moon and would eventually send people to Mars.

His comments raised fears of an arms race in space, with the Russian foreign ministry warning of a space arms race that could be more intense than the 20th-century rush to develop nuclear weapons.

The US and Russia are both members of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons from space and restricts use of the Moon to peaceful purposes.

In response to Mr Trump, Ms Parly said France should invest more in surveillance of outer space to ensure war never breaks out there.