NATO nations ready to jointly respond to attacks in space

NATO is expanding the use of its all for one, one for all, collective defense clause to include attacks in space

BRUSSELS -- 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. Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty states that an attack on any one of the 30 allies will be considered an attack on them all. Until now, it’s only applied to more traditional military attacks on land, sea, or in the air, and more recently in cyberspace. 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, and could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack.” “Such attacks could lead to the invocation of Article 5. 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,” they said.