Stoltenberg to hand over NATO secretary general post to Rutte after 10 years in office

After ten years in office, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will give up his seat to Mark Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, TASS reports.

After the official ceremony, they will address the employees of the organization. Then Rutte will hold his first press conference as NATO’s secretary general. The Dutch politician will become the 14th leader of the alliance. His mandate is for five years, but the term can be extended. In an interview with CNN a week before the expiration of his mandate, Stoltenberg considered the strengthening of the alliance his main achievement, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan his failure and disappointment. “The biggest achievement not only for me, but also for NATO is that we were able to strengthen NATO’s collective defense, make NATO stronger. The world has become much more dangerous in ten years, but NATO has become much stronger,” Stoltenberg noted. Rutte is 57 years old. Before being appointed to the post of NATO’s secretary general, he served as the prime minister of the Netherlands for almost 14 years.