New NATO chief expresses support for Ukraine and not worried about US elections

The new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mark Rutte, expressed this Tuesday his firm support for Ukraine and said he was not worried about the upcoming presidential elections in the United States, since he could work with either of the two candidates. .

Rutte took over from Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general a few weeks before the US presidential vote that pits the vice president, Democrat Kamala Harris, against Republican Donald Trump, who has been critical of NATO.

Trump also has not wanted to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war against the Russian invasion.

“We have to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent and democratic nation,” former Dutch Prime Minister Rutte told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The war in Ukraine has once again placed NATO – founded in 1949 to deter and defend against any attack by the Soviet Union on Western Europe – at the center of international affairs.

Rutte downplayed concerns within the transatlantic alliance over the vote in NATO’s predominant power, saying: “I’m not worried. I know both candidates very well.”

“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one who pushed us to spend more (on defense) and he got it done because, in fact, right now, we are now at a much higher level of spending than when he took office “added Rutte.

“Kamala Harris has a fantastic record as vice president. She is a highly respected leader, so I will be able to work with both of them,” he said.

NATO leaders and diplomats expect Rutte to maintain Stoltenberg’s priorities: building support for Ukraine, pressuring NATO countries to spend more on defense and keeping the United States committed to European security.

Stoltenberg, Norway’s former prime minister, resigned as head of the 32-member alliance after a turbulent decade marked most notably by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sweden and Finland abandoned long traditions of non-alignment to join the ranks of NATO and benefit from its collective defense clause, under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

The war also prompted NATO to send thousands more troops to its eastern flank and to radically revamp its defense plans to take the possibility of an attack from Moscow more seriously than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

While Western leaders insist that NATO is a defensive alliance, Moscow has long considered it a threat to Russia’s security.

According to diplomats and analysts, one of Rutte’s main tasks will be to convince NATO members to provide the troops, weapons and additional expenses necessary to carry out the new defense plans.

“We have to do more in terms of collective defense and deterrence. We have to invest more and fill the capability gaps and try to achieve all the objectives that NATO has set for itself,” he said.

The Alliance makes decisions by consensus, so much of the secretary general’s job is forging compromises.

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