Incoming NATO chief makes no predictions on timing of invitation for Ukraine to join Alliance

Rutte said this on Tuesday at the first press conference in Brussels after the power handover ceremony involving his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg.

"We have to look at all these developments over the next six months, year, two years, also in the context of a possible future NATO membership, but it is very difficult at this stage to exactly predict how the one and the other might, yes or no, be connected," he said.

Rutte also noted that the more Ukraine's partners help it now, the sooner the war will end. "Putin has to realize that we will not give in. That we want Ukraine to prevail," said the new NATO secretary general.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on October 1, the NATO Headquarters in Brussels hosted a ceremony where the powers of the NATO Secretary General were handed by Jens Stoltenberg to the new head of the Alliance, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.