Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte is officially appointed NATO Secretary General.

This was reported on the North Atlantic Alliance’s official website.

Representatives of all 32 member states of the organization voted for this decision on June 26.

Rutte will take office on October 1, when the mandate of the current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has held the post for ten years since 2014, expires.

Evropeiska Pravda reports that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis withdrew his candidacy for NATO Secretary General last week, finally paving the way for Rutte’s appointment.

Before that, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed that he no longer opposed the candidacy of Mark Rutte.

According to him, it was important for him that the next NATO Secretary General support his agreement with Jens Stoltenberg that Hungary “will not participate in NATO activities in Ukraine and no Hungarian funds will be used to support them.”

The Hungarian Prime Minister noted that during the meeting in Brussels, Rutte assured that he supported this agreement and would continue to do so when he becomes NATO Secretary General.

Mark Rutte was the longest-serving prime minister in the Netherlands’ modern history. He first became head of government in 2010.

It is worth noting that during his tenure, this country provided a large amount of military assistance to Ukraine to fight the Russian invaders.

As previously reported, the Netherlands and another country are preparing to provide Ukraine with the Patriot air defense system.

The Netherlands and Ukraine also agreed to cooperate in providing financial support for Ukrainian arms manufacturers. The Netherlands has already decided to allocate €60 million for Ukraine to purchase drones for various purposes.