NATO leadership in limbo: Rutte's candidacy faces ally hesitation
There is still no agreement in the Alliance on who should succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO's Secretary General. "I think, as is already well-known, the momentum is strongly behind Mark Rutte, but not every Ally is ready to sign off on Mark Rutte’s candidacy, and so more discussions await us on that front," says Julianne Smith, U.S. Ambassador to NATO.
At the NATO summit in Washington, scheduled for 9-11 July, a decision will be made regarding Jens Stoltenberg's successor as Secretary General of the Alliance. Two candidates are available: the current Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis.
"Our goal is to have this wrapped up by the Washington Summit. It would be a perfect time to both celebrate the remarkable leadership of Jens Stoltenberg, who has been at the helm for 10 years now," said Julianne Smith, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, in a conversation with journalists.
However, the American diplomat admitted that an agreement was still lacking. "I think, as is already well-known, the momentum is strongly behind Mark Rutte, but not every Ally is ready to sign off on Mark Rutte’s candidacy, and so more discussions await us on that front," she admitted.
"NATO Allies here are focused on its process, the NATO process of selecting the next secretary general. I think we’ve made good progress on that. I fully expect that this will be wrapped up by the summit in July," she added.
"Russian threats are nothing new"
On Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic, a two-day informal meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member countries began. On Thursday, the foreign ministers participated in a formal dinner without media presence hosted by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, a former high-ranking NATO military commander.
Stoltenberg also participated in the meeting in the Czech capital, where he addressed Russia's threats to the Alliance.
When asked whether the use of NATO weapons against targets in Russia could lead to an escalation of the conflict, Stoltenberg said that Putin's threats are nothing new. "NATO allies are providing support to Ukraine; President Putin is trying to threaten us not to do that," he said.
