2024-04-06 23:00:06
Several Eastern European countries are ready to support the main candidate for the post of NATO Secretary General, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, provided that the share of people from the region in the leadership of the alliance increases.
As Day.Az reports with reference to RBC, informed sources reported this to Bloomberg.
The agency notes that in senior positions in NATO, the only representative of Eastern Europe is the deputy of the current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg – Mircea Joana from Romania.
At the same time, after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, the Eastern European member states of the alliance, as Bloomberg writes, “felt confident” and began to strive for greater influence on the decision-making process within the association.
Rutte needs to secure the support of all 32 NATO countries, currently 28 approve his candidacy. The remaining four countries are Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who is also vying to lead NATO, said in February: “It would be unacceptable that none of the top positions being discussed this year should be filled by someone from Eastern Europe.”
In Hungary, support for Rutte was ruled out. “We, of course, cannot support the election to the post of NATO Secretary General of a person who previously wanted to bring Hungary to its knees,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said in early March.
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar noted in early April that he “expected more sympathy from the candidates for the demands of the countries of the eastern wing of NATO.”
Stoltenberg is due to leave the post of Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance this fall. It was initially planned that he would leave office in 2018, but his powers were extended twice.
There is no official procedure for electing the NATO Secretary General; he is appointed by agreement of all member countries of the alliance. Experts from the American publication Foreign Policy noted that the candidate is actually determined by key NATO members – the USA, Germany, France and the UK. They supported Rutte’s candidacy.
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