On Wednesday, ambassadors of the 32 NATO members officially appointed outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as its next secretary general - but who is Rutte, the man behind the job?
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00:00Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been officially selected as NATO's next Secretary
00:06General.
00:07Rutte will assume his position as head of the Defence Alliance from the 1st of October
00:132024, following the decade-long reign of former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
00:21A long-time supporter of Rutte, Stoltenberg welcomed the appointment.
00:25Posting on X, he said, I know I am leaving NATO in good hands.
00:33Mark Rutte became Prime Minister of the Netherlands for the first time in 2010, but resigned last
00:39July after his four-party coalition fell out over how to deal with migration.
00:45He faced a number of scandals while in office, but gained the nickname Teflon Mark for his
00:50ability to bounce back from adversity.
00:54Rutte has supported Ukraine and its right to defend itself since Russia invaded the
00:58country in February 2022.
01:01He previously said it was one of the reasons he went for the NATO job.
01:06Once in office, Rutte will serve a minimum term of four years.