The NATO will continue to be engaged in the Western Balkans after the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte soon replaces Jens Stoltenberg as the Secretary General of the Alliance, according to security and policy experts. At the same time, our interlocutors point out that one should not expect that the NATO will expand during Rutte’s mandate by admitting new members from this region.
Franz-Lothar Altmann, an independent German academic and Professor of international relations at the University of Bucharest, states for EWB that Mark Rutte “will rather be a copy than a counterpart to Stoltenberg”. He explains that Rutte “is a strong supporter of Ukraine” and he will “observe intensively Russia’s attempts to weaken EU’s and NATO’s ties in the Balkans, in particular in Serbia and in Republika Srpska”.
“He will very cautiously follow Orban (Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban), whom he obviously dislikes, and (Slovakian Prime Minister Roberto) Fico how those two behave vis-à-vis their southeastern neighborhood and in particular to the EU and NATO. He will have in the back of his mind the bad remembrances of the scandalous non-performance of the Dutch contingent in Srebrenica, so, he might devote more attendance to the Balkans and promote even more NATO engagement in the region, but not with Serbia. Serbia is for the NATO and the EU not a constructive and reliable partner but a risky player”, Franz-Lothar Altmann claims.
Altmann underlines that Rutte “is known as an extremely capable diplomatic politician who speaks softly and friendly but has clear positions”.
“One must have in mind that the Dutch, as well as the French, are not the most outspoken promoters of the enlargement of EU and NATO”, Franz-Lothar Altmann stresses.
Unlike Altmann, Vuk Vuksanović, a Senior Researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP), states for the European Western Balkans that “there will be no change” in the way the NATO treats the Western Balkans, and that cooperation with Serbia will continue.
“The Secretary General is an international official, and the strategic context is much more important. The Balkans will be on the list of regions where the NATO has its operations, primarily the KFOR mission in Kosovo and will continue to support the EU mission ALTHEA in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The current partner programmes of cooperation with Serbia will also continue, and I do not expect Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Kosovo to become the NATO members,” Vuk Vuksanović says.
Vuksanović thinks that Rutte “will continue to emphasize the same topics in the Balkans, will sometimes mention Russia as a destabilizing factor, but NATO’s behavior in the Balkans will be much more dictated by the security situation on the ground, primarily in locations such as the north of Kosovo, than by which individual is acting as Secretary General”.
The appointment of outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to the leading position of NATO became a done deal after his candidacy was supported by all NATO member states. Earlier, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis withdrew his candidacy for the post of Secretary General.
The term of office of the current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expires 1 October. It has not been announced yet when Ruth will be officially elected to the position. Jens Stoltenberg (65) a former Norwegian Prime Minister, has been at the helm of the NATO since 2014. He served two full terms, which were extended several times.
Mark Rutte (57) is known as the liberal politician who holds the longest premiership in the Netherlands. He is one of the most outspoken critics of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the staunchest supporters of Ukraine. According to Rutte, Moscow’s defeat on the battlefield “is of paramount importance for securing peace in Europe”.