Expert defines tasks for Ukraine after Rutte's appointment as NATO Secretary General

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"The Alliance will have to find its second wind, given the specifics of the foreign policy processes that are taking place. It should be understood that even if the Alliance leadership is a great friend of Ukraine, it will turn out that we need a two-way movement, let's call it that. On the one hand, Mark Rutte is distinguished by his passionate actions and statements in opposition to Russia. And on the other hand, there is a paradox that the Netherlands has been saying for the last five years that they need to return the Austrian army tanks and find the money for this, for the last two years, including during Rutte's premiership, but somehow the Netherlands has not been able to do this. Who would have thought that the wealthy Netherlands, from whom we are asking for help, could not find the money to buy back a battalion of tanks, but this is the reality," Kyrychevskyi said.

According to him, even if Ukraine has a friend in the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance, it is still necessary to work and take steps towards it.

"There is one more problem: when it comes to the fact that Trump may cut, for example, funding for security spending for European countries, it is not just the whims of one of the presidential candidates in the United States of America, but it is generally a breakdown of the security, so to speak, foundations on which modern Europe has been based. That is, when there is a security umbrella from the United States, Europe demonstrates its loyalty to the United States, but instead, the money that could have been spent on weapons could have been spent on maintaining this society, on the general welfare. Now, if the Americans want to relinquish their role as the defender of Europe and the holder of this security umbrella, it means that they need to gradually turn away from the White House. But on the other hand, they also need to increase their costs and competences for their own defense against the Russian occupation army. The arrival of Mark Rutte as the head of the Alliance will not be a way of unilateral bonus distribution, and we should also give bonuses," the Defense Express military expert concluded.

What is known about Mark Rutte's political career

During his studies at Leiden University, Mark Rutte participated in the activities of the youth wing of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, and immediately after graduation he plunged into political activity, which he combined with teaching.

In 2006, he was elected the new leader of the party. A year later, he was elected to the Dutch Parliament.

In 2010, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands appointed Mark Rutte as Prime Minister of the country. He served in this position for a record 14 years and led four different coalition governments. On July 7, 2023, his government resigned. Then Mark Rutte announced that he would not lead his party in the snap election and that he was retiring from politics. 

Foreign Policy journalists wrote, citing sources in the White House, that when Mark Rutte arrived to the United States in January 2023, he said during a meeting with President Joe Biden: "You asked me twice to be NATO Secretary General, and I turned you down twice. If you ask me a third time, I will say yes."

On June 18, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban voiced support for the candidacy of Dutch Prime Minister Rutte for the post of head of the North Atlantic Alliance.

On June 26, NATO allies officially elected Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the new Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance.