The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) issued a statement on the 26th, appointing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Luther as the new Secretary General of NATO. The statement states that the North Atlantic Council has decided to appoint L ü te as the new Secretary General, who will replace the current Secretary General Stoltenberg on October 1st, and the latter will end his 10-year term as NATO Secretary General. Romanian President Johannes officially announced his withdrawal from the competition for NATO Secretary General on the 20th. At this point, L ü t has gained the support of all 32 NATO member states. The Secretary General of NATO and the Chairman of the NATO Military Commission, as well as the Supreme Commander of the NATO European Allies, are core officials of NATO. The Netherlands is one of the founding countries of NATO, and many of its previous NATO Secretaries General come from the Netherlands. Dutch Prime Minister L ü tte has been appointed as the Secretary General of NATO. This is a photo of Dutch Prime Minister L ü tter arriving at the EU summit venue in Brussels, Belgium on March 21st. Zhao Dingzhe, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency, photographed L ü te, born in The Hague, Netherlands, at the age of 57. He has formed a government four times in a row since taking office as Prime Minister in 2010, making him the longest serving Prime Minister in Dutch history. The Netherlands held parliamentary elections in November last year, and the four political parties that received the most votes in the elections subsequently began negotiating to form a coalition. In May of this year, the four parties reached an agreement to nominate Dick Schoff as the new Prime Minister. The new cabinet led by Schoff will be sworn in on July 2nd, and L ü tter officially stepped down as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands on the same day. (Lai Xin She)