Kalinak: Considerations about Activating Article Four of NATO Treaty Appropriate
Considerations about activating Article Four of the North Atlantic Treaty are appropriate, said Defence Minister Robert Kalinak following the cabinet session on Wednesday in response to the situation in Poland, adding that Article Four would mean an intensification of communication at NATO level.
Bratislava, 10 September (TASR) - Considerations about activating Article Four of the North Atlantic Treaty are appropriate, said Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) following the cabinet session on Wednesday in response to the situation in Poland, adding that Article Four would mean an intensification of communication at NATO level.
Kalinak said that he has no information as to whether the attack on Poland was targeted or an accident. If the violation of airspace by attack drones was intentional, it would be "unequivocally" an attack on a NATO-member country, stated the minister.
"It is important to find out exactly what type of incident it was, what its purpose was, whether the target was Poland or if it was simply a failure to guide the drones or the result of electronic warfare. I think that Poland will be able to obtain a sufficient amount of information on this and inform us," said Kalinak, adding that NATO bodies are working and solutions to the situation in Poland are under debate.
The minister ruled out that drones also violated Slovak airspace. Slovakia would like to respond to such an incident in the same way as Poland, but it has no means to do so, stated Kalinak, again criticising ex-minister Jaroslav Nad for donating equipment to Ukraine.
Kalinak claimed that there is no need to convene the Security Council for now as the information on the incident available is still incomplete.
On Tuesday night, Polish airspace was violated during Russian drone strikes on Ukraine. Fragments of one of the drones damaged the roof of a house in the village of Wyryki in Lublin voivodeship. Another drone was found in the village of Czosnowka in the same region. According to Polish Premier Donald Tusk, the shooting down of Russian drones over Poland is the first such incident on the territory of a NATO-member state. All security procedures in Poland were working as they should, he said.
