"The next Secretary General should be from a new (NATO) member state…should definitely be from a country that has spent at least 2% of their GDP on defense, and it would be nice if it would be a woman.""So it’s logical it should be Mark Rutte," she joked, hinting that she, not the Dutch prime minister, could fulfill all criteria.Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas arrives for a summit at EU parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 9, 2023. (John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)Despite Kallas’ arguments, by March, Rutte had received the backing of the U.S. and U.K. and, by June, was supported by twenty-nine of NATO’s thirty-two member states.Only Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania were left to convince.Rutte and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reportedly met on the sidelines of an EU leaders' dinner in Brussels on June 17.