Originally Posted by
ORAC
Grain convoys to continue with ships bearing the Turkish flag and under the protection of the Turkish navy.
Would an attack trigger Article 6?
Not in or over Turkish territory, the Med or the North Atlantic as specified.
Art. 6 For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack:
- on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France, on the territory of Turkey or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer;
- on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer.
UNCLOS:- The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state.
- A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from its baseline. If this would overlap with another state's territorial sea, the border is taken as the median point between the states' baselines, unless the states in question agree otherwise. A state can also choose to claim a smaller territorial sea.
If the ships are outside of 12nm from a NATO coast, then it would be up to each of the signatories to determine what they do, they can still do UNC 51 instead, but NATO doesn't have an explicit obligation in that case. Right now, I would think that chipping the paint of a Turkish vessel by Russia while escorting grain ships would end up with a lot of ships siting in the Black Sea 12.1nm from every major port of Russia's, and the Russian illegally annexed territory. In fact, for that, they may approach as close as Ukraine allows, it's their coast, not Russia's.
It would sink the Russian's reputation lower than it is now, which is close to the mooring point of the Moskva.