NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (63) has now commented on reports of missile strikes in Poland. He warned against hasty reactions: “It is important that all the facts are established.” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter on Tuesday after a phone call with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
“NATO is monitoring the situation and alliance partners are working closely together,” Stoltenberg stressed. The Alliance’s secretary general spoke neither of missiles nor of Russia, but rather of an “explosion in Poland”. Stoltenberg did not respond to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s (41) call for an “immediate” NATO summit.
No decision made
NATO member Poland has meanwhile prepared units of its army. According to information from the alliance, the government in Warsaw could in theory invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty and demand a discussion among the 30 allies. According to Brussels, no such decision has yet been made.
In Article 4, NATO states promise “consultations” in all cases where a member sees “its territorial integrity, political independence or security” at risk. However, this does not necessarily lead to common steps.
Article 4 goes significantly less far than the alliance case regulated in Article 5. It provides for a collective response in the event of an “armed attack” on one or more Member States. Article 5 has been invoked only once in NATO’s 73-year history by a member state: by the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. (AFP/euc)