BBG-Romania To Nominate Pres. For Sec Gen Role Despite Rutte Momentum

Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg posts on X: "Romania has notified other NATO members that it plans to nominate its president, Klaus Iohannis, as a candidate for NATO secretary general, [...]. Will complicate other allies’ effort to install Mark Rutte as the next secretary general."

• Iohannis could gain the backing of Russia hawks in the Baltics, as well as NATO members not so predisposed to support outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte such as Hungary and Turkey.
• As we noted in an earlier bullet (see 1205GMT bullet), the UK and the US have now joined a supposed 20 of the 31 NATO members in offering their support to Rutte to succeed Jens Stoltenberg.
• Wires reporting that the US and UK have been joined by the German gov't in backing Rutte according to a gov't spox. These three nations are the biggest military spenders in NATO, making their backing very influential in selecting a new Sec Gen.
• Nevertheless, with the very future of NATO seen as on the line amid Russia's war on Ukraine and comments denegrating the alliance from former US President Donald Trump, officials from senior member states would likely prefer a smooth and unanimous backing of a single candidate in a demonstration of unity rather than a potential divisive campaign for support by multiple candidates.