I know if a country declares war on a NATO country, all NATO countries will declare war on the axis country. How does this work when a new country joins NATO that is currently in a conflict?
I know if a country declares war on a NATO country, all NATO countries will declare war on the axis country. How does this work when a new country joins NATO that is currently in a conflict?
Pretty sure it doesn’t. If I’m not mistaken there are some rules for the ountry that joins that it can’t be in a conflict like that to avoid precicely what you ask
I thought so too, but while looking for a source I found out that isn’t actually the case. The rules of accession mention nothing concrete regarding territorial integrity or border disputes. See this article from unian.info for more info
However, the articles have the logical consequence that, if Ukraine was to join NATO and Russia didn’t immediately end its war and pull out, the ongoing presence of Russians on internationally-recognized Ukrainian territory would trigger Article 5.
That is my understanding as well. That’s why they don’t intend for Ukraine to join until this gets resolved.