New NATO Secretary General vows to bring Ukraine's accession to Alliance closer

Mark Rutte, the new NATO Secretary General, has announced his intention to uphold the Alliance’s commitments to Ukraine, particularly concerning the irreversibility of its path towards NATO membership.

Rutte outlined three key priorities for his future work, emphasising that one of them would be to bolster support for Ukraine and facilitate its progress towards NATO membership.

"Because there can be no lasting security in Europe without a strong, independent Ukraine. I know from personal experience, with the downing of flight MH17 in 2014, how the conflict in Ukraine is not contained to the front lines. So we must do our part," said Mark Rutte in his inaugural speech as NATO Secretary General.

He stressed that NATO must fulfil the commitments made to Ukraine at the Washington summit in July this year. "The command, the financial pledge and Ukraine's irreversible path to membership [in the Alliance]. We must sustain this support into the future because Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO," Rutte emphasised.

On Tuesday, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte officially took over as NATO Secretary General from his predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rutte said that Ukraine would be at the top of his list of priorities as the new head of the Alliance. 

He also said that he was not concerned about the possible impact of the US presidential election results on the Alliance's unity and, in particular, its ability to support Ukraine.