Turkey supports NATO candidacy Mark Rutte, ‘Mark will be fine’

Turkey supports outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO chief. This has been confirmed by diplomats in Brussels and Turkey itself. Rutte visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Friday to gain support for the top job. “It’s not really a surprise,” says defense specialist Patrick Bolder of the The Hague Center for Strategic Studies. There are three other NATO countries that Rutte must persuade.

Mark Rutte’s NATO lobby in Turkey has worked: the country officially supports Rutte’s candidacy for the position of Secretary General at NATO, NATO sources report to BNR. Rutte was in Turkey last weekend at his own expense to reassure Erdogan on a number of issues, such as the continued fight of NATO countries against terrorism. Turkey has informed NATO allies that it is backing outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte in his bid to become NATO’s new secretary general.

Not really a surprise, says Bolder, who points out that there are no serious opponents. “Erdogan left him hanging a bit, but there weren’t really any other candidates.”

Also read | Rutte is personally seeking support from Erdogan

The three Bs still need to be convinced

Now that Turkey has been crossed, Rutte must turn to the three Bs: Bratislava, Budapest and Bucharest. Mark Rutte’s opponent is in the latter capital: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who now knows that Rutte has won 29 of the 32 NATO countries.

“Romania, Slovenia and Hungary still have to agree,” says Bolder. ‘Maybe Wilders put in a good word last week, but I don’t think NATO was high on CPAC’s agenda.’

Also read | Wilders prefers a party in the ‘no woke zone’ to forming

Bolder still expects that there will be a ‘diplomatic fight’ with a view to the Romanian candidacy, but he points out that ultimately it will be the United States that will make the decision. And also that Turkey is Europe’s largest NATO country. In short: ‘Mark will be fine’.