Rutte Officially Becomes New NATO Secretary General

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of this alliance with 32 member states. The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff, chairing the meetings of the North Atlantic Council and most major committees.
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Mark Rutte has officially become the new secretary general of NATO, as broadcast by the alliance's website on Tuesday.

"Dear Mark, please receive this special gavel and let me invite you to take the seat of chair of the North Atlantic Council," the ex-Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said as he handed over powers to the new head.

Ukraine should get a place in NATO, new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday at the handover ceremony in the NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Rutte Says It is Tremendous Honor to Be Appointed Secretary General of NATO

"We must deliver on the package agreed to at the Washington summit, the command, the financial pledge and Ukraine's irreversible path to membership. We must sustain this support into the future because Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO," he said.