Mark Rutte becomes Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on October 1. NATO will be headed by an ardent supporter of Ukraine, who has experience in confronting Donald Trump.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Bloomberg.
If Trump wins the U.S. election in November, transatlantic support will be called into question, posing an existential threat to the alliance established in 1949. This will destabilize Europe's security architecture as Russia's war against Ukraine enters its third year and Kyiv depends on a steady stream of military and financial aid for its defense.
Rutte will also have to cope with pressure from some members to pay more attention to the fight against terrorism and strengthening NATO's southern flank, while keeping defense spending high enough to provide a credible deterrent, especially given the tight budgets in countries like Germany.
This is in contrast to 2014, when Rutte's predecessor Jens Stoltenberg was warned by his predecessor that he would face “boring years” running the Brussels-based organization.
Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 01/10/2024