Poland blast: What NATO’s Articles 4 & 5 say as Russia blamed for missile strike

In a first since the start of the Ukraine war in February this year, an explosion occurred in the territory of a member country of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) – Poland – on Tuesday, which Polish foreign ministry said was caused by Russian missile strikes.

Two people were killed in the incident – that happened in Przewodow, about 6km from the Ukrainian border, media reports said citing firefighters.

Following the blast, Poland put its military on alert and even summoned the Russian envoy to provide “immediate detailed explanations”. The country has also launched a probe into the matter. Warsaw’s decision came after an emergency national security council meeting.

Polish President Andrzej Duda held talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden, and the White House said that Washington and Warsaw will work closely together to figure out the “next steps” as the investigation proceeds, AFP reported.

Even so, Duda was cautious about the claims of the missiles being made in Russia. He said that there was no concrete evidence at the moment of who fired the missile. “We do not for the moment have unequivocal evidence of who fired the missile. An investigation is ongoing. It was most probably Russian-made,” AFP quoted him as saying.

Russia has denied that its missiles hit the Polish territory. Russian defence minister, in a statement on Telegram, said, “Statements by Polish media and officials about Russian missiles hitting Polish territory are a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation.”

NATO chief Jens Stolenberg is expected to chair a meeting on Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium at the request of Poland on the basis of the organisation’s Article 4.

Meanwhile, Biden held an emergency meeting in Bali, Indonesia, with leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) and NATO present there for the G20 Summit for consultations after the Poland explosion. The meeting took place at a large round table in a ballroom in his hotel, and saw the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK PM Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.

What is Article 4?

According to Article 4, NATO members can raise any issue of concern if the country’s “territorial integrity, political independence or security” is threatened, and the group’s parties will “consult together” on its basis.

Since its creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times. Most of these were invoked by Turkey pertaining to terror attacks and conflict in neighbouring Iraq, among other reasons. The immediate previous one was invoked on February 24 this year by Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania and Poland to hold consultations in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sky News reported.

What will happen next?

After Article 4 comes Article 5, which is defined as the combined defence principle of the NATO. This can only come into effect if it is determined that Russia indeed was responsible for the explosion in Poland, Reuters reported.

What is Article 5?

NATO’s Article 5 states that an “armed attack against one or more of them (member states) in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”.

It also states that party or parties of the NATO, in situation of such an attack, will take 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”.

There has long been a scare of a spillover of the Ukraine war into NATO nations. But as Ukraine is not a member of the group, when Russia invaded it, Article 5 was not invoked.

How does invoking Article 5 work?

NATO’s Article 5 is not invoked automatically, and require all member states to agree or regard the attack as one worthy of the situation. The Reuters report added that there is no time limit on how long such consultations could take.

How many times were Article 5 invoked before?

The Article 5 was invoked only once in the past, on behalf of the US. This was done in response to the September 11 (9/11) attacks wherein Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US commercial planes and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon – the fourth one aimed at a federal building crashed into a field after passengers onboard learned about the terrorists’ plan and revolted. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks.