"And I'm gonna give you a chance to un-waffle. And the un-waffling is, in that blanket statement, I think you made it clear that within NATO, there are no territories within NATO that are second-class citizens. There are no territories within NATO that are not within our Article 5 commitment, correct. The Baltics, the Balkans, there are no areas in which we have a lesser commitment."
"So, to make it clear so that you're waffling, which goes on page after page since you are capable of making the blanket statement, you are capable of saying that within the blanket statement that the United States is committed to NATO NATO, the aggregate of NATO and is committed to Article 5. You are capable, in front of this committee that is committed to NATO and committed to Article 5, to acknowledge that there is no territory within NATO, that there's a second-class citizen."
During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Trump administration's national defense strategy, Rep. Mike Turner questioned Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby about Article 5 NATO commitments. Turner accused Colby of waffling on whether the U.S. maintains equal Article 5 collective defense obligations to all NATO territories, specifically the Baltics and Balkans. Turner pressed Colby to provide a clear yes-or-no answer confirming no NATO territory receives lesser commitment. Colby repeatedly referenced the Washington Treaty and Article 5 without directly answering whether all NATO members receive equal protection, frustrating Turner who demanded a straightforward response.
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