NATO’s new chief makes Ukraine support a top priority and says he will work with any US president

Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The new head of NATO is vowing to help shore up Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine and says he can work with whoever is elected president of the United States, the alliance’s most powerful member. New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte took charge of the world’s biggest security organization on Tuesday, as Jens Stoltenberg stepped down. The handover comes as the alliance confronts some of the biggest challenges in its history. Stoltenberg took over as NATO’s top civilian official in 2014, the year that Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Rutte says his other priorities will be to encourage more defense spending and to boost partnerships the alliance has around the world.