THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Over the course of more than a dozen years at the top of Dutch politics, Mark Rutte got to know a thing or two about finding consensus among fractious coalition partners. Now he will bring the experience of leading four Dutch multiparty governments to the international stage as NATO’s new secretary general.
On Wednesday, NATO ambassadors appointed the outgoing Dutch prime minister as the alliance's next secretary general, its top civilian post. Rutte is scheduled to head the world’s biggest military organization from October.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that “Mark is a true trans-Atlanticist, a strong leader, and a consensus-builder." “I wish him every success as we continue to strengthen NATO for the challenges of today and tomorrow. I know I am leaving NATO in good hands,” he said.
Rutte will be congratulated by President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts at a summit in Washington on July 9-11 focused on support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, perhaps the alliance's greatest challenge.
Taking to social media, Rutte described his nomination as “a tremendous honor.”
“The alliance is and will remain the cornerstone of our collective security. Leading this organization is a responsibility I do not take lightly,” he posted on X. He said that he looks “forward to taking up the position with great vigor in October.”
The secretary general chairs meetings and guide sometimes delicate consultations among the 32 NATO member countries to ensure that an organization that operates on consensus can continue to function. The NATO leader also ensures that decisions are put into action and speak on behalf of all members.
Even before taking over from Stoltenberg, Rutte has been put to the test.
Securing the job of NATO chief required all of Rutte’s diplomatic skills as he convinced doubters, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to back his candidacy.
Rutte had to accept Hungary's demand that it should not be obliged to provide personnel or funds for NATO's new support plans for Ukraine. In an alliance that works on consensus, every country has a veto.
A former NATO spokesperson also believes that Rutte is a good fit for the job.
“Like Stoltenberg, Rutte is a pragmatist and one of the few European politicians to have developed a good working relationship not just with Joe Biden, but also with Donald Trump. That could prove a key asset for NATO after the November U.S. presidential election,” said Oana Lungescu, a former chief NATO spokesperson.
Rutte “is seen as a safe pair of hands to lead NATO in turbulent times, just as Stoltenberg has done for the last decade,” Lungescu, now a Fellow with the defense and security think tank, the Royal United Services Institute, told The Associated Press.
A history graduate and former human resources manager at consumer products multinational Unilever, Rutte became prime minister of the Netherlands for the first time in October, 2010. He quit last July as his four-party coalition wrangled over how to rein in migration.
Although he has been one of Europe’s top politicians for years, Rutte has remained down to earth.
He can often be seen riding his bicycle around his hometown of The Hague, or walking from his office to a meeting eating an apple. When he handed in his government’s resignation to King Willem-Alexander last year, he drove to an ornate royal palace in a Saab station wagon.
Last Thursday, when his last rival for the top NATO job pulled out, Rutte posed — in jeans, a white shirt and sunglasses — for selfies with people outside his office while sitting on his bicycle.
While he was Dutch prime minister, Rutte was a strong supporter of Ukraine and its right to defend itself after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Under his leadership, the Netherlands pledged military hardware to Kyiv including Leopard tanks and F-16 fighter jets.
He said the war on Europe’s eastern flank was one of the reasons for seeking the job as NATO chief.
Rutte bounced back from a number of scandals while in office in the Netherlands. He was so adept at preventing political stains sticking to him that he earned the nickname Teflon Mark.
His third coalition government resigned in early 2021 over a scandal involving investigations into child welfare payments that wrongly labeled thousands of parents as fraudsters.
A few months later, Rutte proved himself a master of survival by leading his conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy to victory in national elections and cobbling together his fourth and final coalition from the same parties that resigned to trigger the vote.
His years in office also have honed his skills at an international level. Working the room with a broad smile and firm handshake at European Union summits, Rutte developed strong working relationships with powerful leaders such as former German chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron. He’s also visited Biden and Trump in Washington.
“As a veteran of EU summits, Rutte will bring a different understanding of the complex NATO-EU relation than Stoltenberg,” said Lungescu. “But he will also need to ensure that the EU’s efforts on defence complement, rather than undermine NATO at this critical time.”
Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
For more NATO news from the AP: https://apnews.com/hub/nato
FILE - Netherland's Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. NATO on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world's biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, talks to Netherland's Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the end of an international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Thursday, June 6, 2024. NATO on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world's biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
FILE - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte shake hands for the cameras prior to a meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. NATO on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world's biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
FILE - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, greets Netherland's Prime Minister Mark Rutte during arrivals for a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. NATO on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world's biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Humanitarian workers have started moving tons of aid that piled up at a U.S.-built pier off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged Palestinian territory, the United Nations said Saturday, an important step as Washington considers whether to resume pier operations after yet another pause because of heavy seas.
It wasn't when the aid might reach Palestinians in Gaza, where experts have warned of the high risk of famine as the Israel-Hamas war is in its ninth month. This is the first time trucks have moved aid from the pier since the World Food Program, a U.N. agency, suspended operations there because of security concerns on June 9.
In just the last week, more than 10 million pounds were moved ashore, according to the U.S. military.
WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press this is a one-time operation until the beach is cleared of the aid and is being done to avoid spoilage. Further U.N. operations at the pier depend on security assessments, Etefa said. The U.N. is investigating whether the pier was used in an Israeli military operation last month to rescue three hostages in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians.
If WFP trucks successfully bring the aid to warehouses inside Gaza, that could affect the U.S. military’s decision on whether to reinstall the pier, which was removed because of adverse weather on Friday. U.S. officials said they were considering not reinstalling it because of the possibility that the aid would not be picked up.
Lawlessness around humanitarian convoys is another challenge to aid distribution. The convoys have come under attack in Gaza. While most aid deliveries come by land, restrictions around border crossings and on what items can enter Gaza have further hurt a population that was already dependent on humanitarian aid before the war.
Meanwhile Saturday, a senior Biden administration official said the U.S. has presented new language to intermediaries Egypt and Qatar aimed at trying to jump-start stalled Israel-Hamas negotiations.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the effort that the White House has yet to publicly unveil, said the revised text focuses on negotiations that are to start between Israel and Hamas during the first phase of a three-phase deal that U.S. President Joe Biden laid out nearly a month ago.
The first phase calls for a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The proposal called for the parties to negotiate the terms of the second phase during the 42 days of phase one. Under the current proposal, Hamas could release all of the remaining men, both civilians and soldiers. In return, Israel could free an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The releases won’t occur until “sustainable calm” takes effect and all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
The new proposed language, which the official didn't detail, aims to find a workaround of differences between Israel and Hamas about the parameters of the negotiations between phase one and phase two. Hamas wants negotiations centered on the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli jails in exchange for remaining living Israeli soldiers and male hostages held in Gaza, the official said. Israel wants negotiations to be broader and include the demilitarization of the territory controlled by Hamas.
Hamas political official Osama Hamdan said the group had yet to receive a new cease-fire proposal from mediators. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by phone with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence service to discuss the negotiations, Hamas said in a statement.
More than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war since it began with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll. The ministry said the bodies of 40 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours.
At least three people, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed and six others were wounded in a strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment.
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and another 250 people were taken hostage.
Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in an eastern part of Gaza City, Shijaiyah, over the last week. Israel's military on Saturday noted “close-quarters combat.” Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes, according to the U.N.
“It’s like the first weeks of the invasion,” one resident, Mahmoud al-Masry said of the intensity of the fighting. “Many people were killed. Many houses were destroyed. They strike anything moving.”
Elsewhere, thousands of Palestinians who remained in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah fled Friday for Muwasi, a coastal tent camp designated by the Israeli army as a safe zone. Some told the AP that they evacuated because Israeli gunfire and missiles had come close to where they sheltered.
More than 1.3 million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel’s incursion into the city in early May, while aid groups warn there are no safe places to go.
With the heat in Gaza reaching over 32 C (89 F), many displaced people have found tents unbearable. The territory has been without electricity since Israel cut off power as part of the war, and Israel also stopped pumping drinking water to the enclave.
“Death is better than it. It is a grave,” said Barawi Bakroun, who was displaced from Gaza City, as others fanned themselves with pieces of cardboard.
Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Aamer Madhani in Asheville, North Carolina, and Samy Magdy in Cairo, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s Israel-Hamas war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An Israeli soldier sits on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Smoke rises in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Palestinian wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, is brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli armoured vehicles move near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Medics treat a wounded child from an Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The sun sets behind the buildings in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
