Mark Rutte, the newly elected chief of NATO, thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his support during a phone call on Wednesday.
The Dutch Prime Minister was named as NATO chief on Wednesday after his rival, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, withdrew his candidacy.
The last hurdle for Rutte to overcome was a veto from Hungary. In a letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Rutte confirmed he would not “deploy Budapest’s military or spend Hungary’s money on supporting Ukraine,” Euronews reported.
Turkey had also previously opposed Rutte’s candidacy but removed its opposition after a meeting between Rutte and Erdoğan in April.
“It is a tremendous honour to be appointed Secretary-General of NATO. The Alliance is and will remain the cornerstone of our collective security,” Rutte said in a post on social media platform X.
“Leading this organisation is a responsibility I do not take lightly. I’m grateful to all the Allies for placing their trust in me,” Rutte said, adding that he will take up the position after current chief Jens Stoltenberg leaves on 1 October.
In an article for Medya News in 2021, Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink lamented the lack of support given to Kurds from Western leaders, including Rutte, and NATO’s ongoing appeasement of Turkey.
“Stop expecting any help from any European leader. They are your suppressor’s willing allies. At no point in the future will you feel any need to ceremoniously open a [Mark] Rutte Road in Diyarbakır or [Angela] Merkel Square in Afrin, or name a valley after [Emmanuel] Macron in the Qandil mountain range,” Fréderike said.
Turkey, meanwhile, under the leadership of Erdoğan, has been engaging in what some analysts have described as ‘hostage diplomacy’, especially in the context of NATO negotiations. According to Robert Ellis, Turkey’s approach to foreign policy has increasingly involved leveraging detained individuals as bargaining chips.
Ellis’s analysis further highlighted Turkey’s role in the recent NATO membership applications of Finland and Sweden, which were initially blocked by Turkey and Hungary. Turkey’s objections were primarily based on claims that these countries were harbouring supporters of groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement, which Turkey labels as terrorist organisations.
Political scientist Sinan Önal argued that it would not be accurate to view Turkey’s approval of Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid as a great victory for Turkish diplomacy. He said that Turkey has been conducting diplomacy on NATO Article 5 since the Madrid summit. This means that in the event of an external attack on any NATO member state, all member states must help that country to repel the attack. Turkey hopes to use Article 5 on the PKK as part of its ongoing war against the Kurds.
