The Polish prime minister has asked for Article 4 of Nato to be invoked after shooting down several Russian drones in its airspace.
Poland’s military recorded 19 drones in its airspace overnight, shooting down three or four of them, in what’s been called a ‘large scale provocation’ from the Kremlin.
Speaking to his parliament during an emergency meeting this morning, prime minister Donald Tusk said: ‘There is no doubt that this provocation is incomparably more dangerous from Poland’s point of view than the previous ones.
‘This is not just a war for Ukrainians. This is a confrontation that Russia has declared against the entire free world.’
Invoking Article 4 is considered the starting point for major Nato operations, and once invoked the North Atlantic Council, Nato’s main decision-making body, usually meets to formally discuss the potential threat.
Members can then come to a joint decision on how best to act next, including whether to invoke Article 5.
How does Nato’s collective defence clause work?
Article 5 of the Nato treaty defines the ‘casus foederis’, otherwise known as its collective defence clause.
It means each member state must consider an armed attack against one member state to be an armed attack against them all.
If such an attack happens, each member state must then assist by taking ‘such action as [the member state] deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area’.
How many times has Nato Article 5 been invoked?
Article 5 has only been invoked once since it came into effect in 1949.
This happened in September 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Following the attack, the UK contacted the US and suggested declaring an Article 5 contingency would be a useful political statement for Nato to make.
The US said it would not invoke Article 5 itself, but also would not object to Nato taking this action.
The invoking of Article 5 has also been threatened on a number of occasions in the last two decades.
These were:
- Turkey, who intended to raise Article 5 in June 2012 after an ‘unarmed’ military jet was downed ’13 sea miles’ from Syria over ‘international waters’.
- Turkey suggested raising Article 5 in August 2012 amid the Syrian Civil War, during which the tomb of Suleyman Shah, considered to be Turkish territory, came under threat.
- The UK and US suggested in August 2022 that any deliberate attack against the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine that could cause radiation leaks would be a breach of Article 5
- Albania considered invoking Article 5 in October 2022 after a major cyberattack targeting government and critical infrastructure. The attack is believed to have been carried out on Iran’s behalf.
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