Hungary and Slovakia will not oppose Rutte's candidacy for NATO Secretary General
Kyiv • UNN
Hungary and Slovakia have announced their potential support for Mark Rutte as the next NATO Secretary General.
Hungary has ended its opposition to Mark Rutte as the next NATO Secretary General. Slovakia's president also signaled his possible support for the candidate on June 18. UNN writes with reference to Radio Svoboda.
Details
Hungary no longer intends to oppose the candidacy of Mark Rutte for the post of the next NATO Secretary General. This became known from Dutch media sources after a meeting between the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU leaders held yesterday in Brussels.
Earlier this month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would end his opposition to Rutte's candidacy if he apologized for his recent criticism of the government in Budapest and allowed Hungary to exclude itself from military alliance plans to provide more aid to Ukraine, Radio Svoboda reports .
On June 18, Slovakia's new president, Peter Pellegrini, said that his country was ready to support Rutte for the top NATO post.
It should be noted that on the evening of May 17, Slovakia's response to Rutte was as follows:
For Slovakia, "of course it is important to know how Eastern and Central Europe is represented in this whole package. At the time, the media reported that Slovakia had not decided whether it supported Mark Rutte as the new NATO chief.
Slovakia is considered one of the most pro-Russian members of the EU and NATO, and Prime Minister Robert Fico has publicly opposed Ukraine's possible membership in NATO.
HelpHelp
This year, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany backed Mark Rutte to succeed Stoltenbergas NATO's outgoing head of state in October.
In April, Turkey informed its allies that it would also support Rutte. Now only Romania and Slovakia have not yet given the green light.
NATO makes decisions by consensus, so any candidate must have the support of all 32 allies.
Recall
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has promised to give Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to withdraw from NATO activities aimed at supporting Ukraine if he becomes secretary general of the military alliance,
