New Nato chief says nuclear threat from Russia not imminent

When asked about former US president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump – who had a fractious relationship with Nato – Rutte praised him for persuading more allies to spend more on defence and for highlighting the challenge posed by Russia.

“He was the one pushing us to spend more,” Rutte said, and pointed out that Nato member countries currently are at a much higher spending level than when Trump took office in 2017.

He also said that Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, was a “highly respected leader” and vowed to work with whoever will win the US presidential election next month.

Like his predecessor, Rutte called for Nato countries to spend more and acknowledged that the Netherlands should have reached the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence sooner.

Mark Rutte, 57, was prime minister of the Netherlands until he stepped down earlier this year following the collapse of his coalition government in 2023.

In June, he was appointed as the next secretary general of Nato.

The term normally lasts four years, but Rutte’s predecessor, the Norwegian economist and former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, ended up staying in post for ten years.

Over that decade, Nato went from the “brain death” French President Emmanuel Macron warned about in 2019 to a revamped military alliance that now counts Sweden and Finland among its members.

In a final farewell message before leaving the job on Tuesday, Stoltenberg said that the last ten years had been “momentous”.

Wishing Mark Rutte good luck, he said he was sure that Nato was in safe hands.