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Incoming NATO chief Rutte faces challenging balancing act

by AI | 30.Sep 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The new NATO chief Mark Rutte must closely cooperate with the new European Commissioner for Defence.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky greets Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Eindhoven Airport in 2023. PHOTO: EFE/EPA/ROB ENGELAAR

BRUSSELS (ANP) – If the Dutch former Prime Minister Mark Rutte becomes NATO Secretary General on Tuesday, he will immediately face challenging balancing work regarding the threat from Russia. A meeting of the 32 NATO Defense Ministers is already scheduled to take place in Brussels in just over two weeks.

Ukraine is entering its third winter since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned European countries in a speech at the United Nations on Saturday not to admit Ukraine, which has been a NATO aspirant member since 2018, into the alliance. According to Lavrov, Europe should also not risk “confronting a nuclear power.”

The warning directly refers to the core of the NATO treaty, which stipulates that the 32 NATO countries will mutually provide military assistance if one of the NATO countries is attacked. By helping Ukraine, NATO countries are, according to Russia, overstepping, and Moscow may possibly not hesitate to use nuclear weapons.

Additionally, NATO countries must keep an eye on issues such as the escalation in the Middle East and the tensions between China and Taiwan. These are political and military problems that the United States, NATO’s most powerful participant, can barely handle on its own.

For decades, American presidents have been proclaiming that the United States is no longer automatically the great protector of Europe. Under Rutte’s leadership, NATO will have to further orient itself towards a course in which the European countries within NATO are militarily stronger and more independent. Moreover, Rutte faces intensive cooperation with the European Union. Due to military threats, cyberattacks, and economic undermining, the EU has appointed a Defense Commissioner for the first time.

In finding all these balances, Rutte’s skills as a shrewd player among the European heads of state will come in handy, according to expectations from NATO countries.

Rutte will become the fourteenth Secretary General. The handover will take place on Tuesday with speeches and a wreath-laying at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Rutte’s predecessor Jens Stoltenberg from Norway has held the role of NATO’s top leader for ten years.

(September 29, 2024)