Drone, what NATO Article 4 says Romania could invoke

Although implicitly, the head of Romanian diplomacy referred to Article 4 of the Atlantic Pact after a Russian drone crashed into a residential building in the border area with Ukraine.

This clause, which allows a member state to open an official confrontation within the Alliance on possible threats to its security, has returned to the centre of debate since the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022, particularly after a series of violations of Nato countries' airspace by drones and aircraft from Moscow. Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu stated that the incident 'falls into the category of events that justify the use of instruments' such as Article 4. Previously, last September, it was Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who announced his intention to formally activate this article, following Russian drone intrusions into Polish airspace.

But what specifically does this rule stipulate? The North Atlantic Treaty provides that any member state may request its application to bring a particular issue before the North Atlantic Council (NAC), the organisation's highest deliberative body, for consideration. The text of the article states that the member states 'shall consult whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened'.

The issue is examined collegially and may eventually lead to a response or joint initiative, without, however, entailing any obligation for military intervention. Far more binding, however, is Article 5, which represents a subsequent level of involvement and enshrines the principle of collective defence: if a member country is attacked, the other allies are obliged to intervene in its defence. To date, it has only been activated once, in response to the attacks of 11 September 2001.