It could easily be Mark Rutte's first press conference as interim Secretary General of NATO. In the palace in Vilnius where the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda has his office, Rutte stood in front of about twenty camera crews and photographers on Tuesday afternoon. And a Lithuanian journalist wants to know what he will do as Secretary General for the Baltic states, which feel increasingly threatened by Russia.
Nauseda, next to Rutte, has just said publicly for the first time that he supports Rutte as a NATO candidate. Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia, says exactly the same thing around the same time on X, and in Brussels the American ambassador to NATO announces that the Americans still want Rutte. Not anyone else.
What could you think could possibly go wrong for Rutte? There is one other candidate, Romanian President Klaus Johannis, and it long seemed that the Baltic states would support him, and were unsure about Rutte. If that is not the case, or is no longer the case, there will only be a small group of countries left in addition to Romania that Rutte does not want, with Hungary as the most outspoken opponent.
'Our own border'
But Rutte is not taking any risks. He says in Vilnius that he is not campaigning for himself and can therefore only respond as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He believes it is “crucial” that Ukraine wins the war with Russia and sees the border of the Baltic states with Russia as “our own border” that must be protected at all costs.
Nauseda nods, then says that he is sure that Rutte realizes what is at stake for Lithuania and the other countries bordering Russia, and therefore what is at stake for NATO as a whole.
Rutte is in Lithuania for a 'working dinner' with the chairman of the European Council of Heads of Government, Charles Michel. It organizes dinners with EU leaders to discuss the future of the European Union. It is about the expansion of the EU, about money, agriculture, climate, geopolitics. The goal is to all come up with a 'strategic agenda', for a long time. Rutte was also in Paris on such an evening in November.
The heads of government of Bulgaria, Sweden and the Czech Republic also came to Vilnius on Tuesday for the EU meeting. But not as early as Rutte. Because even if you are not officially campaigning for yourself, it can be important as a candidate secretary general to show countries in eastern Europe that you care about them. After his visit to Nauseda, he is given a tour of Vilnius University, dating from 1579. There he stands still for a long time, sighing deeply, at a photo exhibition of twenty Ukrainian students who died in the war with Russia. Like Valentyn Levchenko, 18 years old, who, according to the caption, saved the lives of thirteen other soldiers with his own life. “You should bring the family of these young people here,” Rutte told the university rector, “to show how they are honored here.” Then, more to himself: “But of course that can only happen once the war is over.”
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Selfies with Rutte
In Lithuania, Rutte will also visit the Dutch soldiers who are participating in the enhanced Forward Presence at the Rukla training base: NATO troops are holding exercises near the border with Russia, under German command. Rutte was also there in March 2022, just after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Dutch soldiers have been in Rukla since 2017, there are now 278. “Inspection, inspection,” Rutte shouts as he walks into a room of eight soldiers on the third floor of the barracks. He runs a finger over the edge of the door: no dust.
There is no time to visit the exercise that is going on a few kilometers away. There are only about fifty Dutch people in the barracks. Almost all of them will have their photo taken with Rutte this Tuesday. “That's my job,” he says at the exit. “Taking selfies.” He also says what he always said when he was on an election campaign for the VVD: “Today they are free.”
Those VVD days are over. And whether a NATO era is coming for Rutte is still uncertain. Early this year, the US ambassador to NATO said she hoped for a decision on April 4, this week, at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. But diplomats now assume that more time will be needed, the American ambassador says he hopes for the coming weeks.
Although things could suddenly happen quickly. If Romanian President Johannis withdraws his candidacy because he has little support, only Rutte remains, who does have a lot of support. Lithuanian President Nauseda ignored Tuesday afternoon when asked what he would advise Johannis to do now that he is missing out on the support of the Baltic states. He just wanted to talk about Rutte. Also on X: “My candidate.”
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