NATO Countries Will Not Go To War With Russia If NATO Forces Are Attacked In Ukraine
Jose Nino
|
If Russian military forces strike a NATO member country’s troops in Ukraine, this would not be cause for activating by Article 5 of the NATO Charter, German parliament (Bundestag) experts noted, per a report by DPA.
“If military units from a NATO member state participate in collective self-defense in the conflict on Ukraine’s side based on Article 51 of the UN Charter and come under attack by the other party during military operations, this is not a justification to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter,” DPS quoted an expert report, which analyzes the possible consequences of France’s plans to deploy troops to Ukraine.
Analysts argued that the military alliance’s response would have been activated had Russia launched an attack against a NATO member nation or hit targets inside NATO soil. “In contrast, a military response from Russia against targets in France would have been ‘an armed attack’ under Article 5 of the NATO Charter, creating an actual situation where NATO members must assist each other,” the report stated.
Furthermore, the Bundestag experts argued that French ground troops entering Ukraine to assist it would be “acceptable under international law.” That said, in their estimation, a NATO nation’s decision to employ ground troops to Ukraine would not turn the whole military alliance into a party to the conflict by default. “If a NATO member acts unilaterally, that is, not as part of a pre-agreed NATO operation and without the coordination of NATO’s military command, then neither the alliance in general nor other NATO partner states become a party to the conflict,” the document stressed.
Following a conference in Paris dealing with Ukraine toward the end of February, French President Emmanuel Macron did not discard the idea of Western military forces being deployed to Ukraine. Macron also stressed that NATO states were determined to take every possible step to prevent Russia from coming out on top in the conflict. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly rejected the prospect of sending German military units to Ukraine.
Indeed, NATO is an agent of chaos on the world stage. It’s the very form of an entangling alliance that the Founding Fathers warned about.
If the Europeans want to take on Russia, they can go ahead and do so.
However, the US should stay out of this conflict and focus more on actual security concerns like its southern border with Mexico.
Share: