NATO will not come to France's defense if Russia attacks in Ukraine

If a NATO country's military is attacked by Russia in Ukraine, this would not be grounds for triggering Article 5 of the NATO Charter, experts advising the German parliament (Bundestag) said in a document reported by the DPA news agency on March 29.

The document has not yet been made public, but DPA has seen a report by the Bundestag Research Agency, assessing the possible consequences if France goes ahead with its plans to send troops to fight in Ukraine.

“If the military of a NATO member state engages in collective defense in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and takes the side of Ukraine, based on Article 51 of the UN Charter, and is attacked by the other party (Russia) during the course of combat operations in the conflict zone, this would not be a justification for invoking Article 5 of the NATO Charter,” the report said.

According to analysts, the US-led alliance’s collective response would be triggered if Russia attacked a NATO country or targets inside NATO territory. In contrast, a Russian military response to targets in France would be “an armed attack” under Article 5 of the NATO Charter, creating a situation where NATO members must come to each other’s aid, the report said.

Bundestag experts believe that the entry of the French Army into the conflict and on the side of Ukraine would be “acceptable under international law”. However, in their view, the move by one NATO country to send ground troops to Ukraine would not automatically make the entire alliance a party to the conflict, only that country would become a party to the conflict.

“If a NATO member acts unilaterally, that is, not as part of a previously agreed NATO operation and without coordination with the NATO military command, neither the alliance as a whole nor other NATO countries become a party to the conflict,” the document emphasizes.

World - NATO will not come to France's defense if Russia attacks in Ukraine — A Russian Defense Ministry photo shows a military vehicle firing towards Ukrainian Army positions in the area of a “special military operation,” March 2024. Photo: The Guardian

After a conference on Ukraine in Paris in late February, French President Emmanuel Macron repeatedly stated that he did not rule out the possibility of Western ground troops being deployed to Ukraine. Mr. Macron also said that Western countries were determined to do everything possible to prevent Russia from winning the conflict.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of deploying German troops to Ukraine. In a speech on March 29, ahead of Easter, Scholz reaffirmed that Germany would support Ukraine in its fight for a just world for as long as necessary. “We also do this for our own benefit, for our security,” he stressed.

The Bundestag Research Agency is a department of the Bundestag that includes eight specialized departments with around 100 employees, according to the Bundestag's information page.

The agency's experts study topics at the request of individual parliamentarians and Bundestag committees. They provide briefings, documents, factual reports, detailed analyses and expert opinions.

On the Bundestag's website, they are also called “parliamentary advisory bodies”, working in a “politically neutral and objective manner” .

Minh Duc (According to TASS, Yahoo!News)

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