Orban says Hungary ‘ready’ to back Dutch PM Rutte’s NATO chief bid
Al Jazeera
Move comes after Rutte offered assurances he wouldn’t force Hungary to partake in NATO plans to provide support to Kyiv.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban has backed Mark Rutte to become the next head of NATO after the outgoing Dutch prime minister gave written guarantees that he would not force the country to take part in the military alliance’s new plans to provide support to Ukraine.
Rutte’s assurances, contained in a letter to Orban, remove a major obstacle to him becoming the next NATO secretary-general – the organisation’s top civilian official.
It could also allow NATO to put on a major show of unity and demonstrate solidarity with war-ravaged Ukraine when US President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet in Washington on July 9-11. The summit is to mark NATO’s 75th anniversary.
At talks in Budapest last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who is due to step down in October, clinched a deal with Orban to ensure that Hungary would not block NATO’s plans for Ukraine.
Stoltenberg accepted that Hungary should not be obligated to provide personnel or funds for the collective effort, but Orban wanted to hear it from Rutte, too.
