Changing of the guard in the Atlantic Alliance. The Dutchman Mark Rutte assumed command of NATO this Tuesday at the most turbulent moment of the Alliance, perhaps decisive, and at a point of maximum global geopolitical tension. The man who was Prime Minister of the Netherlands for 13 years replaces the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of the military organization with great challenges to overcome, with a war on the European continent, that of Russia against Ukraine, which is going to be three years old. , and with the conflict in the Middle East, with Israel’s war against Gaza and in Lebanon, to which the allies have different approaches and which may have unknown consequences throughout the region. Rutte inherits an Atlantic Alliance much changed and revitalized since the large-scale invasion launched by the Kremlin and still in transformation.
Among those challenges is increasing allies’ defense spending at a time of tight budgets and maintaining support for kyiv—which is experiencing a sensitive moment on the battlefield—to whom NATO has promised that its path to membership is “irreversible”, a promise that, however, is unclear. “We have to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent and democratic nation,” said Rutte, who has also spoken of an increasingly assertive China, which is providing essential support to the Kremlin in the invasion.
The Dutchman issued one of his harshest warnings to Beijing this Tuesday, in his first press conference as Secretary General of NATO. “Through its support of the Russian military industry, China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine. “China cannot continue fueling the largest war conflict in Europe since World War II without this having an impact on its interests and reputation,” the Dutchman launched. “I visited China in mid-March and I already told them there that I don’t understand how they call us ‘dear friends’ and at the same time put us in danger. Why they support Russia by providing microelectronics, essential raw materials and dual-use technologies,” he added.
All of these challenges on the table occur while Europe is obliquely watching the electoral result in the United States, the largest of the allies, which could return one of the great critics of NATO, Donald Trump, to the White House. Rutte, a liberal politician who has led four coalition governments in his country, has said that the Atlantic Alliance is essential for the United States and that both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in the November presidential elections, are aware of it. “I will be able to work with both,” the new secretary general concluded.
Rutte, however, has tiptoed over the situation in the Middle East, where after the war against Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 that reduced the Strip almost to rubble, Israel has launched a ground invasion on the southern Lebanon. “Hostilities must cease as soon as possible,” said the Dutchman, who recalled that the Alliance “does not have a specific role” in the region.
Three priorities
What Rutte has focused on has been the three priorities that he has set for his mandate. Especially in Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has brought about the biggest change in the Alliance since its founding. “There can be no security in Europe without a strong and independent Ukraine. And I know from my own personal experience, with the crash of flight MH17, that the conflict does not stop at the Ukrainian borders,” the new Secretary General remarked.
But just as important as this point for Rutte, a well-known fiscal hawk in the European Council during his time as Government in The Hague, is increasing investment in the allies’ armies. “We have to spend more. We have to increase our collective defense,” he stressed. At the moment, there are 23 States that have reached that commitment that was agreed 10 years ago in Wales. With 1.28% of its gross domestic product dedicated to defense, Spain is the country that, proportionally, allocates the least resources to military spending of the 32 NATO allies, behind Slovenia, Luxembourg or Belgium.
This emphasis is, on the one hand, logical. It is normal for the secretary general of the largest military organization in the world to ask its members for this budgetary effort. But it is also explained by the current situation in which Donald Trump, who during his presidency pressured countries that did not comply with the commitment to do so, may return to the White House. This is what Rutte recognized in this first press conference. Furthermore, the Dutchman has highlighted his previous experience with the Republican as a tool to avoid the tensions that are assumed to arise if Trump returned to the presidency, given the closeness he has maintained with the Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin.
Rutte has also put his experience at the service of NATO to strengthen the Alliance’s ties with the European Union. “I have good friends among EU leaders and I will seek to work with them,” he highlighted. “There is a clear recognition by both NATO and the European Union that we both value a more capable, complementary and interoperable European defense. But that’s also what I hear in the EU. “Nobody wants parallel structures,” he pointed out to possible frictions and overlaps on the part of the two organizations, in which the majority of their members are integrated into both, now that the Union is committed to developing the common defense industry.
“Let us agree that we have witnessed a notable increase in defense production across all lines. We are producing more shells, more ships and more missiles than we have in decades. That’s positive. But we have to go further. We have to go faster. This is for our own deterrence and defense, but also in support of Ukraine. “I believe that NATO has the tools to help increase production,” he developed.
