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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 2 OctOber 2024
NATO’s new chief makes Ukraine support a top priority and says

he will work with any US president

elections just a month away.
By LORNE COOK
Associated Press Surveys suggest the elec-
BRUSSELS (AP) — The new tion will be a close race. It
head of NATO vowed on could see the return of Don-
Tuesday to help shore up ald Trump, whose bluster
Western support for war-rav- during his last term of office
aged Ukraine and expressed about low defense spend-
confidence that he can work ing among European allies
with whoever is elected presi- and Canada undermined
dent of the United States, the trust of NATO member
the alliance’s most powerful countries.
member, in November.“There It became an existential chal-
can be no lasting security in lenge, as smaller members
Europe without a strong, inde- feared that the U.S. under
pendent Ukraine,” new NATO Trump would renege on
Secretary-General Mark Rutte NATO’s security pledge that
said in his first speech on tak- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, and the incoming NATO Secretary General Mark all countries must come to the
ing office, and he affirmed Rutte arrive for a transition ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. rescue of any ally in trouble,
a commitment made by the Associated Press the foundation stone the al-
organization’s leaders in 2008 liance is built on. q
that “Ukraine’s rightful place Rutte told reporters, a few did single out China, and par-
is in NATO.” hours after his predecessor ticularly Beijing’s support for
Russian President Vladimir Jens Stoltenberg handed Putin. “China has become a
Putin’s forces are making the reins to him, along with decisive enabler of Russia’s
advances in eastern Ukraine. a Viking gavel with which to war in Ukraine. China cannot
Ukraine’s army has a shaky chair future meetings. continue to fuel the largest
hold on part of the Kursk But Ukraine’s NATO member- conflict in Europe since the
region in Russia, which has ship remains a distant pros- Second World War without
provided a temporary mo- pect. Several member coun- this impacting its interests and
rale boost, but as casualties tries, led by the U.S. and Ger- reputation,” he said.
mount it remains outmanned many, believe that Ukraine NATO’s new top civilian of-
and outgunned. should not join while it’s fight- ficial also underlined the
“The cost of supporting ing a war. Rutte declined to importance of keeping the
Ukraine is far, far lower than speculate about what must trans-Atlantic bond between
the cost we would face if we happen before it can stand the United States, Canada
allow Putin to get his way,” among NATO’s ranks. Rutte and Europe strong, with U.S.

French and US companies to invest

$10 billion to extract oil off Suriname’s

coast

By GEROLD ROZENBLAD
Associated Press
PARAMARIBO, Suriname
(AP) — France’s TotalEn-
ergies and U.S. hydrocar-
bon company APA Corp.
plan to invest $10 billion
to extract oil off the coast
of Suriname in a historic
investment for the South
American country, officials
announced Tuesday.
The first oil is expected
by mid-2028, with an an- A man sits on the banks of the Suriname River in Paramaribo,
ticipated production of Suriname, Aug. 10, 2010. Associated Press
220,000 barrels per day,
according to TotalEnergies barrels of oil. It is adjacent TotalEnergies will partner
CEO Patrick Pouyanné, to a successful ExxonMobil with APA Corp, a holding
who flew to Suriname to project in waters belong- company for Apache Cor-
personally announce the ing to neighboring Guy- poration, a Texas-based
investment, the country’s ana. hydrocarbon exploration
largest to date. “Today is a historic day for business, and Staatsolie,
The so-called GranMorgu Suriname,” said a jubilant the local national oil pro-
project focuses on an off- President Chan Santokhi, ducer representing the Su-
shore area believed to calling it “a day that will rinamese government.q
contain some 700 million determine our future.”