Hawaii is the only one of the 50 US states that is technically not a NATO member.
Article 5 is contained in the Alliance’s founding document, the North Atlantic Treaty, which came into force in 1949, ten years before Hawaii became a state. According to its wording, the contracting parties (NATO member countries) consider an armed attack against one or more of them as an attack against all of them and undertake to help the attacked member.
“It’s strange. The argument for not including Hawaii is simply that it’s not part of North America,” said David Santoro, president of the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, Hawaii’s capital.
And while Article 5 of the treaty provides for collective self-defense in the event of a military attack on any member state, Article 6 limits its geographic scope.
A spokesperson for the US State Department confirmed to CNN that NATO Article 5 does not apply to the state of Hawaii.
At the same time, however, he recalled Article 4, which states that “The Contracting Parties shall consult whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any Contracting Party is threatened.”
But the ministry’s spokesman also said that any treaty change that includes Hawaii is unlikely to pass because there are other NATO members that have territories outside Article 5’s borders. One example is Britain’s territories in the Isles. Falklands, from the South Atlantic.
Hawaii, strategic point for the USA
At the same time, Hawaii is a strategic state for the US. US military bases there could play a vital role both in the fight against North Korean aggression and in supporting any potential defense of Taiwan, CNN recalls.
“Hawaiian’s non-inclusion shows Beijing that European NATO members have a potential ‘safeguard clause’ in a hypothetical attack on the United States,” said John Hemmings, senior director of the Indo-Pacific Program on Foreign and Security Policy.
At the same time, he added that the US Pacific island territory of Guam, which is less than 5,000 kilometers from Hawaii, should also fall under NATO’s protection umbrella. Andersen Air Force Base is located here, from where the US can launch its bombers over the Indo-Pacific.
However, according to other analysts, in such a hypothetical attack on Hawaii or Guam, the deep ties between the US and its allies would prevail in the decision of NATO member states to provide aid rather than the technical aspects resulting from the North Atlantic Treaty.
Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty regulates the geographical limits within which Article 5 applies
For the purposes of Article 5, an armed attack against one or more Contracting Parties shall be deemed to be an armed attack:
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on the territory of any contracting party in Europe or North America, to the Algerian departments of France, 2 on the territory of Turkey or to the islands under the jurisdiction of any contracting party in the North Atlantic region north of the Tropic of Cancer (Northern Tropic -nr);
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armed forces, ships or aircraft of any of the Contracting Parties situated on or over their territory or in any area of Europe in which the troops of any Contracting Party have been stationed after the date on which the North Atlantic Treaty came into force.
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Tags: Pacific Fleet base Pearl Harbor NATO territory event attack Member States obliged comply Article
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