What Mark Rutte as a new NATO chief means for Ukraine | DW News

What Mark Rutte as a new NATO chief means for Ukraine | DW News

outgoing Dutch prime minister markk rter looks likely to become NATO’s next Secretary General Romania’s president who was the sole Challenger has withdrawn his bid and is now endorsing Mr Rutter to take over when Yen stoltenberg stands down in October as Yen stoltenberg hands over to Mark routa it’s the outgoing Dutch prime minister’s personal motto of go with the flow come to life it’s hard to imagine a successor more similar in nature to the stoic Norwegian who led the alliance for a decade they’re pragmatic they’re likable uh they’re very capable of of forging coalitions and and bringing difficult positions together routa is famously lowkey he lives alone in a modest apartment in the he teaches weekly at a local school and gets around the city by bike a few years ago a video of him cleaning up his own spilled coffee went viral this image of calm competence plus familiarity after more than a dozen years as Dutch prime minister won him early backing by most allies dashing the hopes of Estonian prime minister Kaya kalis that it was finally time for a female Secretary General from an Eastern flank country Romanian president Claus Johannes meanwhile did throw his hat in the ring holding up consensus until today that also allowed regular EU consensus spoiler Victor orbon to exploit a personal grudge against route with whom he he had clashed bitterly over the years on rule of law issues the Dutch man is the real responsible man for whole M we have the goal is to bring hunger to its needs this time rout had to compromise by signing a letter confirming he would maintain a pledge made by stoltenberg to allow Hungary to opt out of supporting Ukraine at NATO that deal is a controversial start to ru’s term in a way you erode the unanimity the consensus rule at NATO so uh I hope R will not make more of these kind of concessions to national leaders depending on the outcome of us elections in November rout may have bigger problems allies backing his candidacy seriously evaluated his ability to assume stoltenberg’s mantle of trump Whisperer but rout has a track record he has publicly rebuked Trump’s acceptance of us EU trade tensions if we don’t it’ll be positive also because no we just think about those cars that pour in here we do something right but it’ll be it’ll be positive but in a lesser known incident at the 2018 NATO Summit Trump’s rant against Europe’s low defense spending was so virulent stoltenberg asked almost everyone but national leaders to leave the room Teo Koster was there and says Ruth stepped in and told Donald Trump that hey he could actually take credit for the recent increases in spending which was not entirely correct but it it sort of calmed down president Trump and uh he found a way to spin the situation as uh something that uh he had achieved but the turnaround in defense spending didn’t start under Donald Trump it started under Obama true um but I think the most important task of any Secretary General is to uh make sure that there’s Unity uh within the aliance that’s going to take all routz considerable maneuvering skills with now 32 allies political shifts underway and a war next door that’s bound to run on long into his tenure expected to begin October 1st well that report from our correspondent uh in Brussels Terry Schulz who joins us now welcome Terry so Mark Rutter’s path finally clear but there were others who wanted the job as you mentioned in your report is this likely to cause him problems you know what was really the issue here is that Eastern European countries Eastern allies were saying it was time for them to have have the top rule it’s been now this will be the fourth Dutch Secretary General of NATO you’ve had the nordics you had uh Andre for rasmuson from Denmark and now uh Yen Stenberg from Norway for 10 years so they’re saying quite fairly I think that it that it’s their turn and that’s why kayak kalis who would have also liked to be the first woman and uh Claus johanes threw their hats in the ring uh but you know I think that uh you can’t go against consensus at NATO and it soon became uh soon became obvious that no one else was going to get the support and so will a change of Secretary General affect the alliance’s attitude towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine I don’t think so because Mark rout has come out very strongly uh in favor of of supporting Ukraine with with everything that allies have to give which is continuing the stoltenberg line uh the Netherlands was one of the the biggest supporters it it’s in the top 10 by GDP in terms of what they contribute to Ukraine right now the Netherlands is giving f-16s part of this Coalition that’s saying it’s going to get f-16s to Ukraine as soon as possible and unlike Belgium which is also giving f-16s uh the Dutch are not putting any restrictions on where they might be used so already markout has put himself out quite far forward uh on on Aid to Ukraine and you know it would be hard to to roll that back once he becomes Secretary General even though of course he’ll be speaking for 32 countries at that point and not just his own so we so as as NATO checks its defenses against to Russia because of what it’s doing in Ukraine maybe now is the time to ask well what is the job of Secretary General the civilian head of a military Alliance who has to report to national leaders what power does he have well that that’s true you you might ask that but when you think about having to get 32 countries on the same page I don’t know if it’s a job everybody would want to try to accomplish sure there there is also the military headquarters down in Mons Belgium and that’s where the military planning is done and of course you have the Supreme Allied Commander Europe uh Christopher cavoli who who runs the military side of things but Yen stoltenberg and of course now Mark route they need to really build the consensus they need to sit in the room with the leaders and come up with these deals that get everyone on the same page again you can’t have one single country opposing policy at NATO just like in some cases at the European Union and so it is really a grueling job at times to get this ever increasing number of countries to come to an agreement and now that’s why this was mentioned by teimo coaster in my report now that Hungary has been allowed to opt out of supporting Ukraine there already feels like there’s going to be a crack in the unity of NATO and that’s something that I think people will be watching very closely to see if this sort of um you know shows the a declining strength of of a NATO statement a NATO position thanks Terry DW correspondent Terry Schultz in Brussels

The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is set to become the next NATO Secretary General. Romania’s president, who was the sole challenger for the position, has withdrawn his bid. He is now endorsing Rutte to take over when Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg stands down in October.

For more on this, we talk to DW Correspondent Teri Schultz in Brussels.

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