“Article 5 is rock solid” Said President Biden In Warsaw. It Does Not, However, Require All 30 NATO Members To Use Military Force. On Behalf Of Or Because Of Ukraine, Not All Would.
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BIDEN AHEAD OF THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIA’S BRUTAL AND UNPROVOKED INVASION OF UKRAINE
The Royal Castle in Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland
21 February 2023
Excerpt: “Next year, I will host every member of NATO for our 2024 summit in the United States. Together, we’ll celebrate the 75th anniversary of the strongest defensive alliance in the history of the world -- NATO. And -- (applause) -- and let there be no doubt, the commitment of the United States to our NATO Alliance and Article 5 is rock solid. (Applause.) And every member of NATO knows it. And Russia knows it as well. An attack against one is an attack against all. It’s a sacred oath. (Applause.) A sacred oath to defend every inch of NATO territory.”
What Is Article 5 And Does It Require A Military Response?
The thirty country members of the Brussels, Belgium-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are: United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Albania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Romania, Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, Spain, Turkey, Latvia, and North Macedonia.
The Republic of Finland and Kingdom of Sweden have been approved for membership by twenty-eight of the thirty members of NATO. The 199-member National Assembly (Country Assembly) of Hungary and the 600-member Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkiye have yet to approve the ascensions. The immediate ascension of Finland is far more important than is the immediate ascension of Sweden given the 830-mile border shared by Finland with the Russian Federation while Sweden has no border with the Russian Federation. The National Assembly of Hungary is expected to approve the ascension of both Finland and Sweden prior to the 11/12 July 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Grand National Assembly of Turkiye is expected to approve the ascension of Finland prior to the 11/12 July 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The government of Turkiye continues to have bilateral issues with the government of Sweden.
Article 5 (From NATO):
“In 1949, the primary aim of the North Atlantic Treaty – NATO’s founding treaty – was to create a pact of mutual assistance to counter the risk that the Soviet Union would seek to extend its control of Eastern Europe to other parts of the continent. Every participating country agreed that this form of solidarity was at the heart of the Treaty, effectively making Article 5 on collective defence a key component of the Alliance. Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.
Article 5
“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”
This article is complemented by Article 6, which stipulates: “For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack: on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France2, on the territory of Turkey or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer; on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.”
The principle of providing assistance
“With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances.
This assistance is taken forward in concert with other Allies. It is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country. It is therefore left to the judgment of each individual member country to determine how it will contribute. Each country will consult with the other members, bearing in mind that the ultimate aim is to “to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”.
At the drafting of Article 5 in the late 1940s, there was consensus on the principle of mutual assistance, but fundamental disagreement on the modalities of implementing this commitment. The European participants wanted to ensure that the United States would automatically come to their assistance should one of the signatories come under attack; the United States did not want to make such a pledge and obtained that this be reflected in the wording of Article 5.”
In 2022, NATO adopted a new “strategic concept” which includes increased focus (and pointed language) about the Russian Federation and for the first time People’s Republic of China. NATO may soon have a revised acronym: NAPTO for North Atlantic Pacific Treaty Organization.
NATO guidelines suggest members’ defense and security spending of 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Currently, nine NATO members meet that guideline and nineteen expect to meet the guideline by 2024. Proposed NATO members Finland is projected to spend 2.2% in 2023 and Sweden is projected to spend 2% by 2028. The United Kingdom projects to spend 2.5% by 2030. Some NATO members are projecting to spend 2.5% or 3% within the next eight years. According to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Two percent is increasingly seen as a floor, not as a ceiling.”
Article 5 does not require any member to invoke a military response. The government of Ukraine presents that had Ukraine been a member of NATO prior to 2014 and again prior to 24 February 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation would not have invaded because Article 5 would have been dissuasive. The government of Ukraine may be correct. Important, however, to consider that NATO’s mandate is focused upon defensiveness rather than by force identifying opportunities to obtain new real estate for its portfolio.