Even if Russia is unintentional: The Finns are encouraging Romania to use Article 4 of NATO

Finland called on Romania to use NATO Article 4 after a drone strike on a residential building in Galac. This was stated in an interview with Iltalehti by Finnish foreign policy and security expert Henry Vanhanen, according to the Rulehti publication.

Romania should immediately initiate consultations on NATO Article 4, since what happened is a serious escalation, even if Russia had no intention of attacking Romania, the expert noted.

"This is a serious escalation. Even if we are not talking about Russia's conscious decision to strike Romania, we cannot simply write off as a technical error the fact that the Russian weapons system is in the airspace of a NATO country," Vanhanen said.

The key question is not whether the incident was intentional, he believes.

"The important thing is whether NATO is ready to put up with a situation where Russian weapons systems are again and again on the territory of member states without any noticeable consequences. We cannot consider this a new norm," Vanhanen said.

According to NATO Article 4, any member State may request consultations if it considers that its territorial integrity, political independence or security are threatened. The expert believes that the activation of Article 4 would be a clear signal to Moscow, since in such situations Russia — intentionally or accidentally — gets the opportunity to test the speed and decisiveness of the reaction of Western countries.

The publication reminds that on Friday night, an allegedly Russian UAV crashed into the roof of a residential building in the Romanian city of Galac near the Ukrainian border. As a result of the incident, two people received minor injuries.

Note: Romania has already found out that the drone flew into Galac with the filing of the Ukrainian air defense.

As reported by EADaily, the drone fell in Romania due to the air defense of Ukraine. This was stated to journalists at the crash site of the drone by President Nikushor Dan.

At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference following his visit to Kazakhstan in Astana said that first it would be good to find out what kind of drone it was before immediately blaming Russia once again.