Turkey Wants Rutte’s Neutrality Promise for Backing His NATO Bid
- Dutch premier Rutte leads candidates for NATO’s top job
- Turkey wants to ensure an equal footing with NATO’s EU members
Mark Rutte
Photographer: Ksenia Kuleshova/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Turkey wants reassurances from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte before Ankara will approve his bid to be the next head of NATO.
Turkey is keen to ensure that Rutte — or any other candidate — won’t have a bias toward the alliance’s European Union members, and particularly that he won’t bow to pressure from EU member states Greece and Cyprus, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing a sensitive matter. The two countries remain at loggerheads with Ankara over long-running territorial conflicts.