Mark Rutte speaks for the first time as he secures NATO leadership

“It took a very long time... but it’s an honour," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said about his assurance of becoming NATO's next secretary general.

Transcript

00:00Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said he's honoured to have all but secured the role

00:05of NATO's next Secretary General.

00:09On Thursday, Romania's President Klaus Johannes withdrew from the race for the military's

00:14alliance top job, leaving Rutte the only remaining candidate.

00:19The Dutch Prime Minister's appointment could be sealed by a meeting of NATO ambassadors

00:24in the coming days, or when President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts meet for a

00:30summit in Washington in July.

00:33Following the announcement of Johannes' withdrawal, Rutte posed in jeans, a white shirt and sunglasses

00:40for selfies with people outside his office.

00:44Speaking to the press, Rutte explained why he went for the job.

00:47Mark Rutte has faced a number of scandals while in office in the Netherlands.

01:10His third coalition government resigned in early 2021 over a scandal involving investigations

01:17into child welfare payments that wrongly labelled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

01:25But just a few months later, Rutte bounced back, leading his Conservative People's Party

01:30for Freedom and Democracy to victory in national elections.