International

Mark Rutte Named Next NATO Secretary General

Mark Rutte will be the next Secretary General of NATO, after all 32 members of the alliance agreed that the Dutch Prime Minister will succeed Jens Stoltenberg. Hungary and Slovakia announced on Tuesday that they no longer oppose Mark Rutte's appointment as NATO leader.

Romania confirmed its support for Rutte on Thursday, when Klaus Iohannis withdrew his candidacy for the leadership role. During a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council of the Country, Iohannis stated that he informed NATO about the withdrawal of his candidacy, according to Politico.

Mark Rutte will assume leadership of NATO at a critical moment. His new role will start on October 2, just over a month before the US elections, which will shape the fate of the military alliance that has served as Eastern Europe's most successful deterrent against Russia.

The former US president, Donald Trump, the current Republican candidate for the same position, said he would not withdraw the US from NATO, but threatened to reduce US aid to Ukraine if re-elected. Rutte's confirmation in the position also means that the issue of succession is clarified before July, when NATO leaders head to Washington to mark the alliance's 75th anniversary.

Rutte's selection for the top position in NATO has been a long journey. He has been campaigning for this position since last November. Rutte was criticised for not being active enough in seeking support from Eastern European countries and questioned the previous support from 2014 for Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

Additionally, Rutte continuously failed to bring Dutch defence spending to NATO's target of 2% of GDP during his 14-year term as Prime Minister of the EU's fifth-largest economy. The Netherlands is expected to meet this target this year, according to the latest NATO figures.

Romania's president, Klaus Iohannis, announced his candidacy at a late stage, in March, when two-thirds of all NATO allies were already supporting Rutte. During his three-month campaign, Iohannis received only one vote from the 32 allies - that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who used his resistance to ensure Hungary's withdrawal from NATO's tasks and funding for Ukraine.

Rutte's selection comes after a long process that extended Stoltenberg's mandate four times. In 2017, the allies opted to extend the Secretary General's mandate until the end of September 2020. In 2019, they extended it to September 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted another extension, which was supposed to last until September 2023.

In July 2023, NATO allies agreed to extend Stoltenberg's mandate as Secretary General by another year. "I am very confident that the alliance will find a good successor," Stoltenberg told Politico last week.

Translation by Iurie Tataru

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