NATO had no discussions on resorting to Article 5 of The North Atlantic Treaty on collective defense over poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2018) NATO had no discussions on resorting to Article 5 of The North Atlantic Treaty on collective defense over poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
Article 5 of The North Atlantic Treaty envisages that an armed attack against one or more NATO member state should be considered as an attack on all the allies.
"There has been no discussion about Article 5, there have been [discussions] about providing strong political support to the UK and also reacting by expelling Russian officials," Stoltenberg told reporters at the pre-ministerial press conference answering a question pn whether NATO discussed resorting to Article 5.
On March 4, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. The United Kingdom and its allies have accused Moscow of having orchestrated the poisoning attack on them with what UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent, albeit without presenting any proof. Russian authorities have strongly refuted the allegations as groundless. The incident resulted in a diplomatic crisis in the bilateral relations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent some 60 diplomatic notes to the UK Foreign Office demanding that Russia be given access to the investigation and the injured Russian citizens, as well as requesting legal assistance and proposing cooperation, including on the joint inquiry. The UK authorities have not responded to any of these notes.
On September 5, UK prosecutors brought charges against two Russian citizens, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, under four articles of the criminal law, including the attempted murder via poisoning of the Skripals and UK police officer Nick Bailey in Salisbury. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she believed that the suspects worked for Russia's military intelligence service GRU, but failed to provide any evidence.
