Poland seeks to trigger NATO Article 4 in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine

Poland’s government has instructed its permanent representative to NATO to apply for the triggering of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last night.

Under that article, “parties [to the treaty] will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened”.

The decision to invoke it was announced this morning by Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller, who said that the decision was taken “with a group of allies”. Among them are Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Tallinn announced this morning.

Meanwhile, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, this morning condemned Russia’s “brutal, unprovoked and unjustified attack” on Ukraine, which is an “unprecedented violation of the norms of international law”.

He reiterated that Poland “will not leave Ukraine without support”, and spoke with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he also met in Kyiv yesterday.

Duda also called a meeting of the National Security Bureau this morning, with the prime minister, interior minister, defence minister and foreign minister among those in attendance, along with military and intelligence officials.

Main image credit: Grzegorz Jakubowski/KPRP

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.