NATO nations will now jointly respond to attacks in space
What's the story
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders on Monday expanded the use of their all for one, one for all, mutual defense clause to include a collective response to attacks in space.
In a summit statement, the leaders said they consider that attacks to, from, or within space could be a challenge to NATO that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability.
Article 5
Article 5 was amended to include the space clause
Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty states that an attack on any of the 30 allies will be considered an attack on all. Until now, it applied to attacks on the land, sea, air, and cyberspace.
A decision as to when such attacks would lead to the invocation of Article 5 would be taken by the North Atlantic Council on a case-by-case basis.
Space
China, Russia's aggressive behavior in space a matter of concern
Around 2,000 satellites orbit the earth, over half operated by the NATO countries. Military commanders rely on them to navigate, communicate, share intelligence and detect missile launches.
In December 2019, NATO leaders declared space to be the alliance's fifth domain of operations, after land, sea, air, and cyberspace.
Notably, many member countries are concerned about China and Russia's increasingly aggressive behavior in space.
NATO
Article 5 was last invoked after the 9/11 attacks
In the 1980s, just a fraction of NATO's communications was via satellite. Today, it's at least 40%. During the Cold War, NATO had more than 20 stations. Today it can double its coverage with a fifth of that number.
NATO's collective defense clause has only been activated once, when the members rallied behind the United States following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
US commitment
We are there for our European allies and Canada: Biden
Former President Donald Trump raised deep concern among US allies when he suggested that he might not rally to their side if they didn't boost their defense budgets.
President Joe Biden has been trying to reassure them since taking office and has used the summit, his first at NATO, as a formal opportunity to underline America's commitment to its European allies and Canada.