NATO Secretary-Normal Jens Stoltenberg will keep in workplace for an additional yr, the 31-nation navy alliance selected Tuesday.
Stoltenberg stated in a tweet that he’s “honoured by NATO Allies’ determination to increase my time period as Secretary Normal till 1 October 1, 2024.”
“The transatlantic bond between Europe and North America has ensured our freedom and safety for practically 75 years, and in a extra harmful world, our Alliance is extra necessary than ever,” he stated.
Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s prime civilian official since 2014. His time period had been as a result of expire final yr however was prolonged then to maintain a gentle hand on the helm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
US President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts had been as a result of title a successor after they meet in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. However the world’s greatest safety group makes selections by consensus, and no settlement could possibly be discovered on a brand new candidate.
Most NATO international locations had been eager to call a lady to the highest submit, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was considered a favorite after a gathering with Biden final month.
The president of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen, dominated out her candidacy. Different attainable names floated, however by no means publicly named as within the working, had been Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
It is the fourth time Stoltenberg has had his mandate prolonged. He is the second-longest serving NATO secretary-general after former Dutch international minister Joseph Luns, who spent nearly 13 years on the helm from 1971.
Quizzed repeatedly in latest weeks over whether or not he would conform to have his time period renewed, Stoltenberg stated that he was not in search of to remain and had no plans apart from to proceed to hold out his duties and wrap his time on the helm in September.
NATO secretaries-general are accountable for chairing conferences and guiding generally delicate consultations between the member international locations to make sure that compromises are discovered in order that a corporation that operates on consensus can proceed to perform.
Additionally they make sure that selections are put into motion and converse on behalf of all nations with one voice.
Stoltenberg has managed to tread a really effective line, refraining from criticizing members led by extra go-it-alone presidents and prime ministers, like former US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
With NATO’s historic adversary, Russia, locked in a warfare with Ukraine, the method of naming a brand new secretary-general has grow to be extremely politicized.
Poland opposes the following secretary-general coming from a Nordic state after Stoltenberg’s lengthy tenure, and that of his predecessor, Anders Fogh Rasmussen from Denmark. Polish officers wished somebody from a Baltic state. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was a most popular candidate.
However different international locations are cautious of accepting a nominee from the Baltics or Poland, given what seems to be their unconditional assist for Ukraine, together with on NATO membership, which the US and Germany, amongst others, insist shouldn’t occur earlier than the warfare ends.
In naming Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish premier, their twelfth secretary normal in 2009, NATO’s leaders signalled that they wished a authorities chief or president on the head of their group. This has made the trail nearly inconceivable for Wallace.
