The outgoing Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, is set to be the next Secretary General of NATO, replacing the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, who will leave the post in October. Rutte, who is still interim leader of the Dutch Government awaiting a new coalition agreement after the November elections, yesterday received the support of the main allies, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany.
At 57 years old, Rutte, a moderate conservative, is the head of European government who has been in office the longest, since 2010. His contact list is, therefore, very valuable. He knows everyone. He is considered a convinced Atlanticist. At the recent Munich security conference, Rutte encouraged European allies to be pragmatic and think that he too can work with Donald Trump if he returns to the White House. He did not get along with Trump when he governed.
The Netherlands is a pillar of NATO, one of the allies where the US has stored nuclear weapons. The Dutch government has been one of the harshest towards Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Not forgotten is the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which covered the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route, probably shot down by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists on July 17, 2014. Among the victims were 196 Dutch. The Rutte Government was one of the first to offer Kyiv F-16 fighter-bombers to end Russian air superiority.
NATO’s secretaries general are elected by unanimous consensus of the 31 member countries. There have already been three Dutchmen who have performed the role since 1949. Yesterday the support came from official sources in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin. It remains to be seen what the attitude of countries probably more resistant to Rutte, such as Hungary, Poland and Turkey, will be.
The Atlantic Alliance, a child of the Cold War and whose headquarters are in Brussels, requires collective defense in the event of an attack on one of its members. It is the famous article 5 of the Washington treaty, the founding document. This does not imply, however, that there should be an automatic military response to aggression. The treaty speaks of adopting “such measures as it deems necessary, including armed force,” but leaves room for intervention by the UN Security Council.
NATO’s secretaries general have always been Europeans, while the supreme military commander is invariably an American, today General Christopher Cavoli.