Rutte becoming NATO chief would confirm disregard for Eastern Europe Former Estonian president says

Former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves told ERR, that he believes there is a prejudiced attitude among Western European countries towards Eastern Europeans, with the latter having a better knowledge of Russia due to their history. Ilves also said that if long-standing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte does become NATO's new Secretary General, it would be clear confirmation of such an attitude.

"Unfortunately, we have 34 years of experience of [them] not wanting to hear what we think. And now we see it once again," Ilves said, referring to Rutte's potential election as the next NATO Secretary General.

"The candidate, who has been selected, so to speak, by the US, the UK, France, and Germany, has been prime minister for 13 years and in all that time has failed to bring his country's defense spending to two percent of GDP," Ilves continued. "How is this person now going to speak to those countries that have not yet reached two percent, coming from a country, which failed to do so, and having been responsible for that?" Ilves asked.

"In addition to that, we know that Rutte was a strong supporter of Nord Stream 2. There is a very famous picture of him with a particularly big smile, where he is standing behind Angela Merkel and Dmitri Medvedev, rejoicing that Nord Stream 2 has been concluded," Ilves continued.

"And just a few weeks ago, he began discussing how we need to restore relations with Russia when the war is over. In my opinion, the NATO secretary general should instead be thinking about how NATO can survive, not worrying about how we will restore relations with Russia once the war is over," Ilves added.

Speaking of the attitudes toward Eastern European countries, Ilves cited a comment made by former Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, who, last November, when assessing Kaja Kallas' chances of becoming NATO Secretary General, said that though she may be highly qualified, she comes from a country bordering Russia.

The election of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO Secretary General will show Western Europe's disdain for Eastern European countries.

This was stated by former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, reports ERR.

In particular, he stressed that Rutte failed to bring his country's defense spending to two percent of GDP during his 13-year premiership. The former Estonian president also called the Dutch prime minister the candidate of choice for the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

"To think that we have the longest-serving Secretary General of NATO, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, it's one thing or the other: either the Vice President of the European Commission does not know the geography of Europe or he has a prejudiced attitude towards Eastern Europeans," Ilves said.

"Or let's recall [former Finnish President] Tarja Halonen, who declared that Estonians were protesting against Russia's [2008 attack] in Georgia because we were suffering from post-traumatic stress due to having been in the Soviet Union. That was her justification for Finland saying nothing about the invasion of Georgia," Ilves said.

"So it's a pretty long-standing attitude towards us and I could list [examples] at length here," he added.

"I think that this statement by Timmermans, as well as the earlier statement by Halonen, is a fairly good illustration of this attitude that Eastern European countries are too anti-Russian, rather than thinking that these people have experience," Ilves said.

The former president said it was a result of the West's wishful thinking about Russia, which was also evident during the Munich Security Conference two years ago, four days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Eastern European countries were warning of war, while Western countries said Russia would never do something like that.

"And now we are seeing it again. If we look, for example, at the leading positions in the European Union and NATO, we are so clearly in the minority, underrepresented, where, with a few exceptions, almost all the senior posts over the past 20 years – the President of the European Commission, the President of the Council, the President of the European Parliament, the Secretary General of NATO – have been disproportionately tilted towards Western Europeans," Ilves said.

"After all, we make up a quarter of the population of the European Union, however, we don't have a quarter, but rather only around seven percent, of the posts that have been made available."

According to Ilves, there is a similar sentiment felt among the 110 million inhabitants of Central and Eastern European countries.

"What's going on? We're taking someone again who doesn't understand what's happening. We are electing someone who knows nothing rather than someone who does know something," Ilves said of Rutte's candidacy.