Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte is likely to be put on hold for longer about his future at NATO. The United States assumes that. US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith says there will be an agreement between NATO’s 32 member states ‘hopefully in the coming weeks’.
According to the ambassador, there is ‘continuous consultation’ about who will be Jens Stoltenberg’s successor at the top of the alliance. In addition, Smith says that a “consensus” on the next NATO leader will be reached “hopefully in the coming weeks.” “We don’t know when exactly it will happen, but better now than later.” It was previously expected that Rutte would be told this week during NATO’s 75th anniversary whether he could succeed Stoltenberg, but there still seems to be too much opposition for that.
Focus on Washington
In any case, the ambassador wants a new leader to be appointed before the NATO summit in Washington. That summit will take place in July this year. According to Europe reporter Geert Jan Hahn, ‘in theory’ it could happen this week, but he does not assume that. ‘Add to this all the signals that no consensus can be found this week and the hope that a new NATO leader will be presented in Washington in July, then you can slowly assume that it will not become clear this week who will be the new secretary. becomes a general. This also applies to Mark Rutte.’
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The US ambassador to NATO reiterated that the US ‘fully supports’ Rutte in his candidacy for the NATO position.
Opposition
The only other candidate for leadership is Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. If Rutte is to become the leader of the alliance, he must gain the support of all 32 member states. So far there are at least 28 countries that support him. Some Eastern European member states are not yet convinced of Rutte’s candidacy.
