NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday there would be no calls to initiate Article 4 until the outcome of an investigation into the “explosion” on Poland’s eastern border that killed two was completed.
“I spoke with [President Andrzej Duda] last night, we agreed on the importance of awaiting the outcome of the investigation,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “We don’t have the final outcome on that, we have no indication that this was a deliberate attack.”
Stoltenberg, Duda and President Biden have signaled that preliminary results of the investigation show that the rocket that landed in the Polish village of Przewodów on Tuesday was likely not a Russian missile but part of Ukraine’s air defense systems.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at the NATO headquarters, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022 in Brussels. Ambassadors from the 30 NATO nations gathered in Brussels Wednesday for emergency talks after Poland said that a Russian-made missile fell on its territory, killing two people.
(AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)
The NATO chief said officials would act accordingly based on the final results of the investigation.
On Thursday Duda’s administration said he had informed Stoltenberg that it was “highly probable” that the Polish ambassador to NATO “will request to invoke Article 4.”
Fox News could not immediately reach Duda’s office for comment on if the Polish government is in agreement with Stoltenberg to on hold off on convening NATO members until the investigation is complete.
A policeman talks to a driver on the street near the site where a missile strike killed two men in the eastern Poland village of Przewodow, near the border with war-ravaged Ukraine on November 16, 2022.
(Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
POLISH PRESIDENT SAYS ‘NO PROOF’ MISSILE THAT LANDED IN NATO TERRITORY WAS FIRED BY RUSSIA
Article 4 in the NATO charter allows any member nation to bring forward a security concern by convening a meeting at the North Atlantic Council to “consult” on issues relating to independence, sovereignty, or security.
Initiating Article 4 could be seen as a prelude to employing Article 5 – which calls for a collective defense if there is an attack on even one member nation – though initiating Article 4 does not mean that NATO allies have to take direct action.
The consultation of all NATO member nations would send a strong signal to an aggressor, like Russia, that the military alliance is taking seriously the issue at hand.
Members of the Police searching the fields near the village of Przewodow in the Lublin Voivodeship, seen on Nov. 16, 2022 in Przewodow, Poland.
(Artur Widak/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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NATO maintains that Kyiv is not “at fault” for the explosion that killed two Poles even if it is confirmed that Ukrainian air defense systems landed in Poland.
Stoltenberg said Wednesday that Russia “bears ultimate responsibility” for the tragedy because of its ongoing war in Ukraine.
