The North Atlantic Council has decided to appoint the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte as the next Secretary General of NATO.
This was reported by the NATO press service.
Mark Rutte will replace the current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenbergʼs term of office will expire on October 1, 2024 after ten years at the head of the Alliance.
After Romanian President Klaus Iohannis officially announced that he was withdrawing from the race for the post of NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte remained the only candidate. He had the support of the leaders of all NATO countries. However, at first Hungary and Slovakia did not stand for it. Because of this, Rutte, as the FT writes, offered Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the opportunity to refuse Ukraineʼs support within NATO if he is appointed Secretary General.
The current Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg has been in office since October 1, 2014. Before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg officially refused to run for the next term and agreed to head the Central Bank of Norway.
His mandate was extended because NATO member states did not reach a compromise on a successor — this requires the consent of all member states of the Alliance. Therefore, Stoltenberg will hold the post of Secretary General until October 2024.