M. Rutte, who secured Lithuania’s support in the NATO race: Russia must lose

NATO leaders hope to announce this summer who will replace Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of the Alliance.

Mr. Rutte became the clear favorite in February, when the United States, Britain, France and Germany declared their support.

The Baltic countries were not in a hurry to express their sympathies – they demanded to listen better to the concerns of Eastern and Central Europe about Russia and even proposed their own candidates. Critics have pointed out that for years the Netherlands has underfunded its defense.

However, on Tuesday, G. Nausėda and the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, publicly announced: we support the long-term head of the Dutch government standing at the helm of NATO.

Mr. Rutte, for his part, promised to strive for Ukraine’s victory in the war and to defend the Baltic countries if they were attacked by Russia in the future.

– Mr. Prime Minister, many Lithuanians fear that the West is not helping Ukraine enough to defeat Russia and that the Baltic countries may become the next target of Russian imperialism. What would be your message to these Lithuanians here in Vilnius?

– The border between Lithuania and Belarus, between the Baltic countries and Russia is basically also the border of the Netherlands. This means that we will defend it collectively as the European Union and as NATO.