FLASH NEWS
The American state that is not included in NATO, but of strategic importance for the defense of Taiwan
2024-03-31 12:04:33 / BOTA
Sweden became NATO's newest member earlier this month, joining 31 countries in the security alliance, including the United States. Well, not the entire United States, as only 49 of the 50 states are in the alliance. Hawaii is not technically covered by the NATO pact.
If a foreign power were to attack Hawaii—say, the US naval base at Pearl Harbor or the headquarters of the Indo-Pacific Command northwest of Honolulu, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not be obliged to stand up in defense of the Aloha State.
"It's the strangest thing, " said David Santoro, president of the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, who added that even most Hawaiians have no idea that their state is technically dependent on the alliance.
" People tend to assume that Hawaii is part of the US and therefore covered by NATO," he says. But, he admits, the information is in the name of the alliance – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Hawaii is, of course, in the Pacific, and unlike California, Colorado or Alaska, the 50th state is not part of the continental US that reaches the North Atlantic Ocean on its eastern shores.
" The argument for not including Hawaii is simply that it is not part of North America ," says Santoro. The exemption is spelled out in the Washington Treaty, the document that established NATO in 1949, a decade before Hawaii became a state. While Article 5 of the treaty provides for collective self-defense in the event of a military attack on any member state, Article 6 limits the geographical scope of this.
A US State Department spokesman confirmed that Hawaii is not covered by Article 5, but said Article 4, which says members will consult when the "territorial integrity, political independence or security" of any member is threatened, should cover any situation that could affect the 50th State. The spokesman also said any treaty change to include Hawaii was unlikely to reach consensus because other members have territories outside the boundaries set out in Article 5. For example, NATO did not join the 1982 war with founding member the United Kingdom with Argentina after Argentine troops occupied the Falkland Islands, a disputed British territory in the South Atlantic. NATO did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
Hawaii, Guam, Taiwan and North Korea
Some experts say that times have changed in the decades since the signing of the Washington Treaty and argue that today's political situation in the Indo-Pacific may require re-dimensioning. That's because US military bases in Hawaii could play a vital role in both countering North Korean aggression and supporting any potential defense of Taiwan.
China's ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democratic island as its territory, despite never having controlled it. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made "reunification" with Taiwan a key part of his overarching goal to "rejuvenate" the nation by 2049.
While Chinese leaders have said they hope to take control of the island through peaceful means, they have not ruled out doing so by force and have increased military intimidation of the island in recent years. The Taiwan Relations Act obliges Washington to provide weaponry for the island's defense, and US President Joe Biden has suggested he would use US military personnel to defend it in the event of a Chinese invasion. A 2022 war scenario run by the Center for a New American Security played out with China attacking US command and control installations in Hawaii as part of its fight to take Taiwan by force.
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