The North Atlantic Council has decided to appoint Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO’s next Secretary General.
He takes over at a critical point in the future of the alliance and with the bitter war in Ukraine still rumbling on.
Rutte, long time PM in the Netherlands, succeeds Jens Stoltenberg.
Rutte will assume his functions as Secretary General from 1 October when Stoltenberg’s term expires after ten years at the helm of the Alliance.
Reaction was swift with comment from senior MEP David McAllister, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
The deputy told this website, “Mark Rutte is a transatlanticist with a proven record in successful consensus-building as well as a vocal ally of Ukraine in its fight against the Russian war of aggression.
“I welcome his selection as next NATO Secretary General, and am convinced that he will work diligently to defend NATO as the cornerstone of our collective security.
“Equally, the European Union must continue in its endeavour to strengthen the European pillar within NATO’s structures by making an even bigger contribution to our common defence.”
The veteran MEP added, “As an experienced leader of a European member state for fourteen years, Mr Rutte is the right partner within NATO to achieve exactly that.”
Stoltenberg, meanwhile, met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday to discuss preparations for the Washington Summit in July.
The Secretary General praised France’s “key role in the Alliance, including its contributions to collective defence on the eastern flank with deployments in Romania and Estonia.”
He also thanked President Macron for France’s contributions to NATO’s air policing in the Baltic skies and in the maritime domain.
