US Ambassador to NATO: We support Mark Rutte. To our friend, Klaus Iohannis, all the best

The US Ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, stated on Tuesday, in a press briefing in Brussels, that Washington fully supports the current Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the head of the North Atlantic Alliance, noting that it appreciates the candidacy of Klaus Iohannis, who described him as a “friend” and to whom he wishes “all the best”.

“I think you are aware that the US position is that we fully support Mark Rutte as the next Secretary General, but we also have the utmost respect for our friend President Iohannis and we appreciate that he has entered the race and we wish him all the best , while we continue to debate this issue (election of the future secretary general – no) within the Alliance“, said Julianne Smith, according to News.ro.

The US permanent representative to NATO stated that currently the ambassadors of the 32 NATO member countries are discussing and debating the arguments regarding the two candidates.

“We, all 32 ambassadors here, from NATO, are in the midst of searching for potential successors (for the current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg – no). And there are two official candidates, as you know. We have Mark Rutte from the Netherlands and President Iohannis from Romania. There is an ongoing debate within the Alliance regarding the qualifications of these two very impressive leaders and we will continue to debate the pros and cons of these two individuals until we reach a consensus on one of them“, the ambassador claimed, according to the quoted source.

Julianne Smith added that she “hopes” that in the coming weeks a consensus will be reached, but specified that it is not known what the exact moment will be.

“We certainly want to reach a decision on this as soon as possible. I think we would like to have this resolved by the Washington summit at the latest“, the ambassador pointed out, noting that “that’s all he can say at the moment”.

The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, announced on March 12 that he is entering the race for the headship of NATO, as a person from Central and Eastern Europe is needed for the position of Secretary General.

At the time Iohannis made the announcement, at least 20 of the 32 NATO members, including the most important Western members – the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany -, had announced their support for the resigned Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.

But Eastern European countries would want someone different from Rutte, with a clearer approach to what the war in Ukraine means and how to manage the relationship with Russia. Hungary and Bulgaria, to which Turkey could be added, have already announced that they do not agree with the Dutchman Rutte at the head of NATO. Similarly, the prime minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob, recently claimed that he is analyzing both candidacies for the head of NATO, although Ljubljana had initially announced that it was supporting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the post.

The new head of the Alliance is decided by consensus, so all 32 states must agree, preferably by the July NATO Summit in Washington.

The mandate of the current Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, already extended twice, ends in October.