World
Dutch PM Rutte to succeed Stoltenberg as NATO chief, media reports
Speaking at a news conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Stoltenberg neither confirmed nor denied the media report.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a staunch ally of Kyiv and a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO chief, Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported on Tuesday, after Hungary and Slovakia backed him, Reuters reported.
Speaking at a news conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Stoltenberg neither confirmed nor denied the media report.
“With the announcement of (Hungarian) Prime Minister (Viktor) Orban, I think it’s obvious that we are very close to a conclusion … to select the next secretary-general, and I think that’s good news,” he told reporters, while praising Rutte.
“I think Mark is a very strong candidate. He has a lot of experience as prime minister. He’s a close friend and colleague, and I therefore strongly believe that very soon, the alliance will have decided on my successor,” he said. “And that will be good for all of us, for NATO and also for me.”
NATO’s next secretary-general will face the challenge of sustaining allies’ support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, while guarding against any escalation that could draw the military alliance directly into a war with Moscow, read the report.
In the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Rutte has been one of the driving forces behind Europe’s military support to Ukraine, stressing time and again what he said was the absolute need for a Russian battlefield defeat to secure peace in Europe.
Under his recent leadership, the Netherlands has ramped up defence spending above the 2% threshold of GDP required of NATO members, providing F-16 fighter jets, artillery, drones and ammunition to Kyiv as well as investing heavily in its own military.
Rutte’s support for Ukraine is underscored by his criticism of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, as the Netherlands holds Russia accountable for the downing of passenger flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 – which killed all 298 passengers and crew, 196 of them from the Netherlands.
Hours before the NOS report, Hungary and Slovakia had given their support to the candidacy of Rutte, clearing a crucial hurdle on his way to NATO’s top job.
NATO takes decisions by consensus, so any candidate needs the support of all 32 allies. Only Romania, whose President Klaus Iohannis is also vying for the job, is still officially opposed to Rutte’s candidacy.
Hungary’s backing followed a meeting Orban had with Stoltenberg last week, where the two sides agreed that Hungary would not block NATO decisions on providing support for Ukraine but has agreed that it would not be involved.
ORBAN DROPS OPPOSITION
“PM Mark Rutte confirmed that he fully supports this deal and will continue to do so, should he become the next Secretary General of NATO,” Orban wrote on the X social media platform.
“In light of his pledge, Hungary is ready to support PM Rutte’s bid for NATO Secretary-General.”
Orban had earlier opposed Rutte’s candidacy because he had expressed “problematic” opinions that included the idea that Hungary should leave the European Union.
Hungary has been at odds with other NATO countries over Orban’s continued cultivation of close ties with Russia and refusal to send arms to Ukraine, with Budapest’s foreign minister last month labelling plans to help the war-torn nation a “crazy mission.”
Turkey and Slovakia have also changed course on Rutte’s bid, with Turkey saying it would support him in late April and Slovakia announcing its support earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, had stressed the need for the next NATO chief to help deal with the protection of Slovak airspace, its President Peter Pellegrini said, after the previous Slovak government donated an S-300 system to Ukraine, and allies pulled out Patriot batteries that had been temporarily placed there.
Stoltenberg’s term will end on October 1, 10 years after taking office in 2014, just a few months after Russia annexed Crimea.
During his tenure, Stoltenberg oversaw NATO’s shift from an alliance mainly engaged in crisis management missions in far-off places such as Afghanistan back to its roots of defence against Russia.
Four countries have joined NATO since Stoltenberg took office – Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden, read the report.
By giving the top job to Rutte, the alliance will pass the opportunity to see a woman, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, take the helm of NATO for the first time – something several members had lobbied for.
Kallas, a candidate mainly touted by eastern European countries, was seen as too hawkish towards Russia by some western member states.
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World
Trump says he still has good relations with leader of ‘nuclear power’ North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he still has a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with whom he held several summits during his first term, and referred to North Korea once again as a “nuclear power.”
Asked by reporters during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte whether he had plans to reestablish relations with Kim, Trump said: “I would … I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens, but certainly he’s a nuclear power,” Reuters reported.
On January 20, when he was inaugurated for his second term, Trump said North Korea was a “nuclear power,” raising questions about whether he would pursue arms reduction talks rather than denuclearization efforts that failed in his first term in any re-engagement with Pyongyang.
After referring to Russia and China’s nuclear arsenals, Trump said: “It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number. We have so many weapons, and the power is so great.
“And number one, you don’t need them to that extent. And then we’d have to get others, ’cause, as you know, in a smaller way – Kim Jong Un has a lot of nuclear weapons, by the way, a lot, and others do also. You have India, you have Pakistan, you have others that have them, and we get them involved.”
Asked if Trump remarks represented any shift in policy towards North Korea’s nuclear weapons, a White House official said: “President Trump will pursue the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term.”
On February 15, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts reaffirmed their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea in accordance with U.S. Security Council Resolutions.
Last week, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong criticized the Trump administration for stepping up "provocations" and said it justified North Korea increasing its nuclear deterrent. This week North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles, its first since Trump took office.
World
Iran’s President to Trump: I will not negotiate, ‘do whatever the hell you want’
“It is unacceptable for us that they (the U.S.) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want”, state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. while being threatened, telling President Donald Trump to “do whatever the hell you want”, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
“It is unacceptable for us that they (the U.S.) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want”, state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal, Reuters reported.
While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports down towards zero.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said last week, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the IAEA has warned.
Iran has accelerated its nuclear work since 2019, a year after then-President Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
World
Philippines’ ex-President Duterte arrested at ICC’s request over ‘drugs war’ killings

The Philippines arrested firebrand former President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court, a major step in the world body’s investigation into thousands of killings in a bloody “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Duterte, the maverick former mayor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was served an arrest warrant on arrival from Hong Kong at Manila’s main airport and was now in custody, the office of his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial, crime-busting former prosecutor to power in 2016 and he soon delivered on promises made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug dealers and users, Reuters reported.
If transferred to the Hague, he could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
Duterte has insisted he told police to kill only in self-defence and has repeatedly defended the crackdown, saying he was willing to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.
In a video posted on Instagram by daughter Veronica Duterte from Manila’s Villamor Air Base, where he has been placed in custody, the former leader questioned the reason for his arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” he said in the video. It was unclear who he was speaking to.
“I was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else’s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”
The president’s office has yet to clarify the next steps for Duterte and it was not immediately clear what the ICC has charged him with.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of Duterte’s crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
The ICC’s prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals.
Police have rejected allegations from rights groups of systematic executions and cover-ups.
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