Photo: Mark Rutte
The candidacy of Acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte for the post of future NATO Secretary General has been approved. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Rikard Jozwiak reports this.
Rutte’s candidacy was approved by the ambassadors of NATO countries in Brussels. The official appointment is expected to take place at the organization's summit in Washington in July. Rutte's term of office will be five years. He will replace the current Secretary General of NATO, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg.
The fact that all 32 countries of the North Atlantic Alliance supported Rutte's candidacy was previously reported by Politico.
The last countries whose support is needed was to get Rutte, only Slovakia and Hungary remained. They approved his candidacy on Tuesday, June 18. The only contender for the post besides Rutte was Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. Previously, he announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not agree to support Rutte’s candidacy for several months, but received a promise from the Dutch prime minister that Budapest would be able to refuse to participate in NATO activities to support Ukraine.< /p>
As Prime Minister of the Netherlands – Rutte headed the cabinet for more than 10 years – the future NATO Secretary General pursued a consistent policy in support of Ukraine and criticized the Russian authorities.
The new head of NATO is due to take up his duties on October 2. His main task in office will be to increase defense spending for all countries of the military alliance to 2% of GDP. According to NATO estimates, only 23 of the organization's 32 countries have reached the military spending target.
Prepared by: Sergei Daga