'Teflon Mark' Rutte set to bring consensus-building skills from Dutch politics as next NATO chief

On Thursday, the Romanian president withdrew from the race for the alliance's top post, leaving Rutte the only remaining candidate and almost certain to lead the party. the largest military organization in the world starting at October.

Rutte's nomination could be sealed by a meeting of NATO ambassadors in the coming days, or when President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts meet for a meeting. summit in Washington from July 9 to 11.

The secretary general chairs meetings and guides sometimes delicate consultations among NATO's 32 member countries to ensure that an organization that operates by consensus can continue to function. The NATO leader also ensures that decisions are implemented and speaks on behalf of all members.

Even before succeeding Jens Stoltenberg, Rutte was put to the test.

Securing the post of NATO chief required all of Rutte's diplomatic skills to convince skeptics, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to support his candidacy.

It took a very long time. It's a complicated process, but it's an honor that it seems to have happened, Rutte told reporters in The Hague before cycling from work.

A former NATO spokesperson said Rutte was a good candidate for the job.

Like Stoltenberg, Rutte is a pragmatist and one of the few European politicians who has developed a good working relationship not only with Joe Biden, but also with Donald Trump. That could prove a key asset for NATO after November's U.S. presidential election, said Oana Lungescu, NATO's former chief spokesperson.

Rutte is seen as a safe person to lead NATO through turbulent times, just as Stoltenberg has done over the past decade, Lungescu, now a member of the NATO think tank, told the Associated Press. defense and security, the Royal United Services Institute.

From historian to business leader via politics

A history graduate and former human resources director at multinational consumer products company Unilever, Rutte first became prime minister of the Netherlands in October 2010. He resigned last July as his four-party coalition fought over on how to curb migration.

Despite being one of Europe's leading politicians for years, Rutte has remained down-to-earth.

He is often seen cycling around his hometown of The Hague, or walking from his office to a meeting while eating an apple. When he handed in his resignation to King Willem-Alexander last year, he traveled to an ornate royal palace in a Saab station wagon.

On Thursday, he posed in jeans, a white shirt and sunglasses for selfies with people in front of his office while sitting on his bike.

When he was Dutch prime minister, Rutte was a strong supporter of Ukraine and its right to defend itself after the 2022 Russian invasion. Under his leadership, the Netherlands pledged military hardware to kyiv, including Leopard tanks and F-16 fighter jets.

He said the war on Europe's eastern flank was one of the reasons he sought the post of NATO chief.

With everything that happened in Ukraine, the instability in the world and a number of people who thought maybe I could achieve this, you can't just put it aside, he said . And it’s of course incredibly interesting work.

Rutte's political career has not been smooth

Rutte has recovered from a number of scandals while in power in the Netherlands. He was so adept at keeping political stains from clinging to him that he earned the nickname Teflon Mark.

Her the third coalition government resigned in early 2021 following a scandal involving investigations into child protection benefits which wrongly labeled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

Months later, Rutte proved himself a master of survival, leading his conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy to victory in national elections and cobbling together his fourth and final coalition made up of the same parties that resigned to trigger the vote.

Experience on the international political scene

His years in office also allowed him to hone his skills at the international level. Working the room with a broad smile and a firm handshake at European Union summits, Rutte elaborated strong working relationships with powerful leaders like former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Frances Emmanuel Macron. He also visited Biden and Trump in Washington.

As a veteran of European summits, Rutte will bring a different understanding than Stoltenberg of the complex NATO-EU relationship, Lungescu said. But it will also need to ensure that EU defense efforts complement NATO, rather than weaken it, at this critical time.

While the Netherlands, under Ruttes' leadership, failed to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of its GDP on defense, the Dutch are expected to surpass that target this year. NATO estimates suggest the Netherlands will spend 2.05% of its GDP, up from around 1.2% a decade ago, when the allies pledged to increase their military budgets following the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

For more NATO news from the AP: https://apnews.com/hub/nato