Dutch PM Rutte will be next NATO leader; Romanian Pres. Iohannis backs out of race

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is almost certain to become the next leader of NATO, as it emerged on Thursday that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will back out of the job hunt on Thursday. Iohannis is expected to pledge his support for Rutte’s candidacy for the military alliance leadership, a role which requires the unanimous support of all of its members.

Romania is expected to tell the NATO allies next week that Iohannis will inform back Mark Rutte for the job. With his candidacy, Iohannis wanted to keep focus on the fact that no Eastern European leader has held the top job at the alliance, and the region is now more important than ever with Russia’s continued war in Ukraine.

Rutte overcame the biggest obstacle to taking the top job by smoothing over his differences with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The two met earlier this month after Orbán said he needed Rutte to express his regret for his choice of words when Rutte said Hungary should leave the European Union if it wanted to move forward with limiting human rights for sexually diverse people and gender minorities.

Rutte, who is the longest serving political leader of the Netherlands, said he was not asked to apologize during their meeting. Nevertheless, Orbán gave his support to Rutte hours after Slovakia did the same.

Previous to their meeting, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Orbán to assure him that Hungary would not be forced to provide military aid to Ukraine. He also said Hungary would not be forced to provide a military response should NATO allied forces be attacked while present in Ukraine. Rutte also reiterated this position.

Rutte also had to win the backing from Turkey. To do so, he paid his own way to fly to the country to meet with its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It leaked out ahead of the meeting that Erdogan would give his support to Rutte, which happened days after.

The next step is for Rutte to be formally nominated and voted in as Stoltenberg’s successor. The next NATO Summit is scheduled to take place in Washington D.C. in July. The United States has said it wants a new leader to be ready to take over at NATO so the historic event marking the alliance’s 75th anniversary will project unity and strength.

Officially, Stoltenberg will step down by October 1. Rutte also will need to leave his position as the prime minister of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the expectation is that the incoming prime minister, Dick Schoof, will take over on July 2 once he is sworn in by King Willem-Alexander.