Expert: Kallas and Rutte can push EU and NATO to do more for Ukraine

Kaja Kallas, as the potential next European Union foreign policy chief, and Mark Rutte, as the next NATO secretary general, are capable of pushing their organizations to strengthen support for Ukraine, said security expert Kristi Raik on "Ukraina Stuudio."
Last week, the European Council confirmed Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform Party) as a candidate for the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, and the North Atlantic Council decided to appoint Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the next NATO secretary general.
According to Kristi Raik, these developments are positive from Ukraine's point of view because they primarily signal that neither the European Union nor NATO is expected to soften their stance towards Russia.
"At the same time, neither the high representative for foreign affairs nor the NATO secretary general themselves make decisions. Decisions are made by the member states in both organizations, and a change in these top positions does not immediately alter policy. However, particularly in the case of Kallas, but also Rutte, one can expect that their messages will be strong and clear. Both are very experienced international leaders, with high profiles, and they can certainly push their organizations to do even more to increase the cost of the war for Russia and strengthen support for Ukraine," Raik added.
Although the Netherlands is one of the largest supporters of Ukraine, the country does not contribute the required 2 percent of its GDP to defense spending as mandated by NATO. However, Raik noted that Rutte has been a strong critic of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russian leader Vladimir Putin for a long time.
Raik acknowledged that a critical issue for NATO is finding sufficient funds not only to support Ukraine militarily but also to strengthen European defense capabilities, which raises questions regarding Rutte.
"This was a topic debated at last week's European Union summit, the same meeting where the new top candidates were named. At that summit, the Netherlands and Germany were again the countries that did not support strong new funding mechanisms to enhance European defense capabilities with EU resources. There was talk of European joint debt, Eurofunds, which Estonia, among others, has supported, but no solution was reached. So it still seems that Europe is moving very slowly in strengthening its defense capabilities, and there are questions regarding Rutte on this issue," said Raik.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Marcus Turovski