Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has a reputation in the Netherlands as a political consensus-builder who regularly rides his bicycle to work from the same home in the Hague where he has lived for the past 30 years. But he is also known as a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine who has pushed his country to increase its military support to Kyiv.
That proved to be an attractive pairing as the 32-member NATO alliance ended a lengthy and at times divisive search for a new chief by formally naming Mr. Rutte, 57, to be its next secretary-general. Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg had held down the post for a full decade, staying on far longer than scheduled as the alliance dealt with the crisis in Ukraine and struggled to coalesce around a successor.
The five-year appointment was expected when Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced last week that he was dropping out of the race. The long-serving Dutch politician will take over on Oct. 1 from Mr. Stoltenberg, who was formerly prime minister of Norway.
Security analysts said Mr. Rutte can get along with people of differing viewpoints and opinions, a useful quality as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has both unified and exposed divisions inside the alliance. Max Bergmann, with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said his demeanor and well-honed political savvy could be crucial in the new job.
With the move to Brussels, Mr. Rutte may also finding himself soon dealing with more conservative leaders in Europe skeptical of NATO’s Ukraine mission and a second administration for Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with allies over defense spending, deployments and other issues during his first four-year term in the White House.
“Secretary-general is, in some ways, a job about herding cats and getting 32 members to kind of be on the same page,” Mr. Bergman told reporters on Wednesday during a briefing about next month’s NATO summit in Washington, meant to mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary. Failing to have settled on a replacement for Mr. Stoltenberg before the summit kicks off July 9 would have been a diplomatic embarrassment for NATO powers.
Mr. Stoltenberg has led the alliance since 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Mr. Rutte will take over as NATO continues focusing on supporting Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russian invaders while bolstering its own security needs.
“It is a tremendous honor to be appointed secretary-general of NATO. The alliance is and will remain the cornerstone of our collective security,” Mr. Rutte said shortly after NATO announced his selection. “Leading this organization is a responsibility I do not take lightly.”
The challenges Mr. Rutte faces as NATO’s next leader are daunting. He will continue the alliance’s campaign to support Ukraine while simultaneously reinforcing NATO defenses in the face of a hostile Russia. He also will help determine NATO’s role in dealing with potential threats from an increasingly bellicose China and weigh the alliance’s growing role in Asia.
“But, the preeminent challenge is a political one. Rutte will take the reins of NATO at a time of significant political uncertainty across the alliance,” said Philippe Dickson, a former British diplomat now with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. “The new secretary-general will have to manage whatever configuration of leaders the electorates in France and North America choose in the coming months.”
Mr. Stoltenberg applauded the naming of Mr. Rutte as his successor, calling him a “true transatlanticist, a strong leader and a consensus-builder.”
“I wish him every success as we continue to strengthen NATO. I know I am leaving NATO in good hands,” Mr. Stoltenberg said in a statement after the selection was made.
White House ties
The White House said President Biden and Mr. Rutte have worked closely over the last decade, including during Mr. Biden’s tenure as vice president during the Obama administration. Both men agree on the need to support Ukraine while tightening trans-Atlantic bonds, officials said.
“President Biden strongly believes that Mark Rutte will make an excellent secretary-general and he’s grateful for his willingness to serve in that capacity,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.
Mr. Rutte has long been seen as a favorite of Mr. Biden’s, a fact highlighted by Russia in its first reaction to the appointment.
“In this structure, not even the member states decide anything, let alone the secretary-general,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the official Tass news agency. “The Americans run everything.”
By contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has made no secret of Kyiv’s desire one day to join the Western military alliance, welcomed the selection, saying in a statement: “I know Mark Rutte as a principled and strong leader, who has demonstrated his decisiveness and vision on many occasions over the past years.”
Mr. Rutte also has a reputation as a “Trump whisperer,” a center-right politician who showed he could work with the former — and possibly future — GOP president. Mr. Trump has been openly hostile to NATO in the past and regularly criticized European countries for expecting the U.S. to pay for their defense. At the Munich Security Conference in February, Mr. Rutte said he had a point.
“Let’s stop moaning and nagging and whining about Trump. We need to invest in our defense expenditure [and] we need to massively ramp up arms production,” Mr. Rutte told the gathering. Many of the countries Mr. Trump criticized were failing to meet the targeted 2% of GDP for annual defense spending benchmark that all NATO countries had signed on to.
“This has nothing to do with Trump. This has to do with the U.S., Canada, Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom, the [European Union], and NATO countries — all of us making sure that we stay safe and that our values are protected by protecting Ukraine and making sure that our defense is at maximum capacity,” he said.
During Mr. Rutte;s tenure as prime minister, the Netherlands itself failed to meet the 2% threshold on defense spending, which was supposed to take full effect this year. But, the Dutch are expected to exceed that figure this year, spending 2.05% of the GDP on the military, according to NATO figures.
Mr. Rutte gave a clear example of his skills as a politician and negotiator by convincing all 32 members of the NATO alliance to support his campaign. Hungary, whose nationalist government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly questioned the alliance’s stout anti-Russian stance, signed on after Mr. Rutte said Budapest would not be obligated to provide funding to Kyiv or send personnel to Ukraine.
“Rutte can be very pragmatic, but at a time when the rules-based order is under serious threat, NATO requires leadership that will have to go beyond what everyone can agree on,” said Dominykas Kaminskas, a visiting fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative. “We know the Dutch prime minister can find consensus when it’s difficult, but whether he will be able to get allies to make sacrifices and decisions that they might not otherwise be comfortable making remains to be seen.”
Dutch politics is renowned for its intricate and often lengthy coalition-building battles, and Mr. Rutte has suggested he’ll bring some of those same skills to NATO.
Asked at the Munich conference in February about the possible return of Mr. Trump to the White House, Mr. Rutte offered an insight into his pragmatic approach.
“I’m not an American, I cannot vote in the U.S.,” he said at the time. “We have to work with whoever is on the dance floor.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.