It's undoubtedly late in the game but supporters of Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis hope it's not too late to block the outgoing Dutch prime minister'swell-paved path to the helm at NATO.

The process of selecting a new NATO chief has traditionally been done away from the public eye, with consensus reached in discussion behind closed doors in various capital cities. Openly elevating one's ambitions to become secretary general would be unseemly, even as candidates work behind the scenes to build the required support. Despite all this secrecy, it's long been clear that Rutte is considered the"safe choice" by the majority of allies. He would replace Jens Stoltenberg , the second-longest serving secretary general in history, when he leaves in October, after a decade on the job.

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NATO wants its decision made before the European Union starts shuffling seats after the June elections and the United States votes in November. However the presumption that this is largely a done deal has just been rattled by a new social media push supporting the Estonian prime minister and a report by news agency Bloomberg on Thursday that the Romanian president will also throw his hat in the ring.

The Dutch leader is praised for his long political career and familiarity with his counterparts, but when it comes to NATO, he doesn't possess some of the characteristics many would like to see in a new secretary general: That is, a change of gender and........

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