New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte: Ukraine's rightful place is in the Alliance

The new NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, stated that during his term, he will strive to fulfill the commitments made to Ukraine by the Alliance, particularly regarding the irreversibility of its path to NATO membership. He announced this in his first speech as Secretary General, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.

Rutte outlined three main priorities for his future work, noting that one of them would be to strengthen support for Ukraine and bring it closer to 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.

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.

The former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, officially took over the duties of NATO Secretary General from his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday. He noted that Ukraine will be a top issue on his priority list as the new head of the Alliance.