The ambassadors of the thirty NATO countries are convening for an "emergency meeting" chaired by Secretary General Stoltenberg on Wednesday morning to discuss the missile strike in Poland.

The spokeswoman for the alliance said that at night, she spoke of a "tragic event".

She did not specifically refer to Article 4 of the NATO treaty, but it stands to reason that Poland has already activated it or will activate it today. 

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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According to Article 4 of the NATO treaty, a member country can convene consultations with allies if it believes that "the integrity of the territory, political independence or the security of one of the parties is threatened".

The alliance announced that Stoltenberg would report on the results of the meeting around 12:30 p.m.

After the rocket hit a village near the border, the Polish government coordinated closely with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US President Joe Biden and other allies.

The night after his phone calls, President Andrzej Duda announced that the Polish ambassador to NATO "will most likely apply to activate Article 4 (of the NATO treaty), i.e. consultations with the allies".

It would be the seventh time

Article 4 has been activated six times since the Alliance was formed, mostly by Turkey.

Most recently, Ankara convened a special session in February 2020 after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike by the Assad regime on Idlib in Syria.

Allianz's obligation to provide assistance, on the other hand, is regulated in Article 5 of the contract.

Accordingly, the members of the alliance have agreed "that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against them all".

The type of assistance can be varied, it can, but does not have to be military.

There is no automatism.

It is mandatory that the UN Security Council is informed before any countermeasures are taken.

So far, the Alliance has triggered Article 5 once, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. At that time, the main concern was to express solidarity with the attacked United States;

it was only much later that a joint NATO mission was launched to stabilize Afghanistan.

The military intervention in the Hindu Kush country was carried out by an alliance of the willing.

From Warsaw it was said that Poland also wanted to address the situation to the UN Security Council soon.

In the morning, the heads of state and government of NATO and the G-7 countries met in Bali.

They condemned the "barbaric missile attack launched by Russia on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on Tuesday."

The joint statement by the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom said: "We have spoken about the explosion occurring in the eastern part of Poland near the border with Ukraine Has.

We offer our full support and assistance to the ongoing Polish investigation.”

We will stay in close contact to coordinate the next steps.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also in Bali, did not appear at the meeting.

When asked about it by reporters, he replied, "We are not required to attend unimportant meetings."