"title"=>"Estonia’s Kaja Kallas backs Mark Rutte for NATO top job",
"summary"=>"Dutch PM wins high-profile endorsement. ",
"content"=>"\n
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas — herself an unofficial candidate for NATO’s top job — said Tuesday she backs her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte for the secretary-general post.
\n\n\n\n“For a strong NATO, we need to be clear-eyed on Russia, boost deterrence and defence spending, back Ukraine’s membership, and geographic balance,” she said in a statement posted on social media.
\n\n\n\n“I have discussed this in depth with Mark Rutte and he commits to these priorities. Estonia can back him for NATO’s Secretary General,” Kallas added.
\n\n\n\nHer backing is a major win for Rutte, who has been struggling to get support beyond Western Europe and North America.
\n\n\n\nNATO, declared “brain dead” by French President Emmanuel Macron back in 2019, has regained importance thanks to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, welcoming two new members — Sweden and Finland — in recent months.
\n\n\n\nHowever, a potential return of NATO-skeptic former U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House has raised fears in Europe that Washington could disengage from the military alliance and Europe’s security.
\n\n\n\nEarlier Tuesday, Kallas had to shoot down an April Fools’ hoax which said she had the support of heavyweights including the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to lead NATO.
\n\n\n\nRutte’s path to the job became clearer when one of his rivals, Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, had to resign because of a flight spending scandal.
\n\n\n\nBut Rutte still faces competition from Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who announced a surprise bid last month, arguing NATO would benefit from the perspective of Eastern Europe.
\n\n\n\nOver the weekend, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spelled out his conditions to support Rutte’s bid, which include having the “sensitivities” of non-EU countries taken into account. Hungary currently opposes the Dutch leader’s candidacy.
\n","author"=>"Laura Kayali",
"link"=>"https://www.politico.eu/article/estonia-prime-minister-kaja-kallas-backs-mark-rutte-nato-top-job/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication",
"published_date"=>Tue, 02 Apr 2024 15:23:30.000000000 UTC +00:00,
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"created_at"=>Tue, 02 Apr 2024 19:52:02.325674000 UTC +00:00,
"updated_at"=>Mon, 21 Oct 2024 18:06:49.692788000 UTC +00:00,
"newspaper"=>"Politico EU",
"macro_region"=>"Europe"}