Mark Rutte will take up the position of Secretary General on 1 October 2024. Source: Nato.int The NATO Council announced that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who lost the elections, became the new Secretary General of the alliance. He will officially take up his new position on October 1. His appointment was approved on Wednesday, June 26, by the ambassadors of 32 NATO countries at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council. NATO is a military-political alliance of Western countries. Currently the union has 30 members. It was originally created to fight against the Soviet Union. Countries now proclaim cooperation in the field of security and defense as their main mission. Who is Mark Rutte The new Secretary General of NATO was born in 1967 and graduated from the Faculty of History at Leiden University. He devoted 8 years of his life to study and defended his master’s thesis in 1992. While still a student, he became interested in politics. However, Rutte continued to work for the international corporation Unilever until 2002, and then completely went into politics. Gradually he led the Dutch People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. After winning the 2010 elections, Rutte was appointed prime minister of the country. Despite resignations due to the political crisis and subsequent appointments, Mark Rutte headed the Dutch government until 2023. In Europe, he became the second longest-serving leader after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Rutte now continues to serve as prime minister as talks are held to form a new cabinet following elections last fall. Why do they want Rutte to lead NATO? Former Prime Minister Mark Rutte could act as a political counterweight to former US President Donald Trump if he is re-elected in the November 2024 US elections, according to Politico. Thus, former US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland stated this. journalists were told that Mark Rutte had experience of fighting Donald Trump when their opinions differed. The former prime minister did not hesitate to express the opposite opinion to Trump “to his face.” Relations with Russia In 2014, Mark Rutte visited Sochi as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. The meeting with Vladimir Putin was friendly. But in 2014, Rutte supported the introduction of sanctions against Russia due to the crisis in Ukraine. Later, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands announced the need to extend and tighten them. Relations between Russia and the Netherlands deteriorated significantly after the crash of MH17 in the Donetsk region in 2014. On board were mainly Dutch citizens. The Dutch authorities said that Moscow was to blame for the crash of the Malaysian Boeing. In 2021, Rutte said that he would refuse to participate in the Russia-EU summit if Russian President Vladimir Putin was present at the meeting. The reason for this decision was his tough stance on the plane crash between Putin and Rutte at a meeting in Sochi in 2014. Source: RIA_Kremlinpool/Т.me From the very beginning of its work, BC Rutte sharply criticized Russia. After which he called for the introduction of personal sanctions against Vladimir Putin and members of the Russian government “Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people,” Rutte wrote on his X account. He maintains his position to this day in Switzerland, Rutte said that Russia had to participate in a conference after the end of the conflict. “Many speakers said that Russia should sit at this table, and I completely agree with that,” he said on October 1, 2024. Rutte takes over as NATO Secretary General, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. The Secretary General is the person who manages the work of the organization. It is also responsible for implementing decisions taken by the UN.
Who is Mark Rutte, who will lead the alliance? – June 26, 2024 – Russia today
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