By Bart H. Meijer
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Mark Rutte, who appears set to be NATO’s subsequent secretary-general, is a staunch ally of Ukraine and a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who honed his expertise as a political dealmaker throughout almost 14 years as Dutch prime minister.
Rutte, 57, has been one of many driving forces behind Europe’s navy help for Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, and says defeat on the battlefield for Moscow is significant to safe peace in Europe.
His view is closely influenced by the downing of an airliner over Ukraine in 2014, which the Netherlands blames on Russia, and during which 196 of the 298 victims had been Dutch. NATO have to be highly effective to counter Moscow, and different European Union leaders should not be naive about Putin’s Russia, he says.
“He won’t stop at Ukraine, if we don’t stop him now. This war is bigger than Ukraine itself. It’s about upholding the international rule of law,” Rutte instructed the United Nations in September 2022, seven months after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Rutte first took workplace in 2010 and went on to grow to be the longest-serving Dutch prime minister earlier than asserting final yr that he deliberate to go away nationwide politics.
After the downing of flight MH17, he went from being primarily domestically centered to one of many EU’s important dealmakers, taking part in an necessary function in European debates on immigration, debt and the response to COVID-19.
Below his management, the Netherlands has elevated defence spending to greater than the two% threshold of GDP required of NATO members, offering F-16 fighter jets, artillery, drones and ammunition to Kyiv and investing closely in its personal navy.
His path to interchange Jens Stoltenberg, who steps down as NATO chief in October after almost a decade on the helm, turned all however sure after Hungary and Slovakia indicated on June 18 that they might again his nomination to steer the 32-state alliance.
That left solely Romania, whose President Klaus Iohannis was additionally vying for the job, against Rutte’s candidacy.
Stoltenberg mentioned on Tuesday Rutte was a “very strong” candidate to interchange him and a choice was close to.
Below Stoltenberg, who joined a couple of months after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the alliance has added Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden as new members.
Some members of the North Atlantic Treaty Group had hoped Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas would grow to be the primary girl to steer NATO however others noticed her as too hawkish in direction of Russia.
TRANSATLANTIC BOND
Rutte will step apart formally as prime minister when the lately cast right-wing Dutch authorities replaces his centre-right coalition.
Rutte, who’s single, has lived all his life in The Hague and had hinted he may take pleasure in instructing after politics, however he cited the warfare in Ukraine as the rationale for looking for a world publish as he set his sights on the NATO management.
He’s a robust backer of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom he recalled assembly in Kyiv 5 years in the past.
“It was clear even then: this is a man with a mission… I am convinced that Ukraine’s success largely depends on the mentality he conveyed from the very beginning,” Rutte instructed Reuters in April.
In contrast, even whereas warning of the risk posed by Putin, he has steered the Russian chief will not be as robust as he appears.
“Don’t mentally overestimate Putin. I’ve talked to the man a lot. He’s not a strong man, he’s not a strong guy,” Rutte mentioned in a debate with parliament in April.
Rutte cemented his bid to grow to be NATO’s new chief final yr whereas co-leading a world coalition that can ship F-16 fighters to Ukraine and practice Ukrainian pilots.
In his final months in workplace, he additionally signed a 10-year safety pact with Ukraine, guaranteeing help from the Netherlands regardless of criticism by far-right chief and election-winner Geert Wilders.
Rutte has cast good relationships with varied British and U.S. leaders and is broadly seen as having been some of the profitable within the EU at coping with U.S. President Donald Trump, who’s standing for re-election.
This might show worthwhile expertise, as Trump’s potential return has unnerved NATO leaders because the former president referred to as into query U.S. willingness to help different members of the defence alliance in the event that they had been attacked.
On the annual Munich Safety Convention final yr, Rutte mentioned leaders ought to cease “moaning and whining about Trump”, and spend extra on defence and ammunitions manufacturing, no matter who wins the U.S. election.