NATO sets a reason to activate Article 5 of its Charter

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Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said: “A cyber attack on one of the NATO countries could constitute grounds for activating Article 5 of the NATO Charter.”

RIA Novosti quoted him as saying: “Not only a physical attack, but even a cyber attack could form the basis for discussing the activation of Article Five, and as a result of the discussions, subsequent measures may be implemented.”

Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance is ready to resort to Article 5 of the Washington Collective Defense Treaty in response to a massive cyber attack.

It is noteworthy that Article Five of the NATO Charter means that the Alliance is obligated to defend one of its member states if it is subjected to collective attack, and that each NATO state is responsible for defending the entire territory belonging to all member states.