The US state of Hawaii is not covered by the Fifth Article of the North Atlantic Alliance Charter on Defence: if the USS Pearl Harbor base or the Indo-Pacific Command headquarters near Honolulu is attacked, allies in the bloc are not obliged to defend them.
This is reported by CNN.
The channel recalled that NATO was founded in 1949, and Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States only in 1959.
As explained by the head of the think tank Pacific Forum International David Santoro, the clue that the article does not apply to Hawaii is hidden in the very name of the bloc North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
He emphasised that Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean, is not part of the North American continent.