Official Rutte As Secretary General Of NATO, Kremlin Does Not Expect Significant Policy Changes

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. (Source: NATO)

JAKARTA - Russia on Tuesday said it did not expect any significant policy changes from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), along with the position of secretary general of the organization now officially held by Mark Rutte.

"Our hope is that the North Atlantic alliance will continue to work in the same direction as it has been so far," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding President Vladimir Putin knew Rutte well from previous meetings.

"In the past, there was hope for the possibility of building a good pragmatic relationship - at least, such dialogues had been carried out - but then we found out the Netherlands was taking a somewhat unpeaceable position, a position that would not allow any contact with our country at all," Rutte said.

"Therefore, we do not think that something significant will only happen in alliance policies," he added.

Separately, in his first press conference after officially taking office, Rutte dismissed Kremlin satire against his country, saying Moscow "has a very good source and I can't say it in a better way because I really admire Jens Stoltenberg," quoted from The National News.

"Personal experience" in directing his country through the shooting of an MH17 plane crash by Ukrainian separatists in 2014, of which more than two-thirds of passengers are Dutch nationals, teaches Rutte that war in Ukraine is "infinite to the front lines", he said.

Rutte also said there was no "direct threat" from Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons despite a recent statement from the Russian president.

"In general, if we surrender to Putin's threat, we will set a precedent that the use of military force allows a country to get what it wants, and we cannot do that," he said.

As previously reported, Mark Rutte officially served as Secretary-General of NATO following the handover with his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium.

The handover of the position of Secretary-General of NATO was marked by the handover of a ceremonial Viking wooden hammer donated in 1963 by Iceland from his predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg to Rutte.