defensive alliance
NATO: Secretary General Stoltenberg’s contract extended
Contract extended: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. photo
©Virginia Mayo/AP
The search for a successor to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has failed for the time being. In the absence of a candidate acceptable to all 31 alliance states, the Norwegian will remain in office until October 2024.
Stoltenberg himself had stated several times in the past few months that he was not actually aiming for another term. According to information from those around him, he is now continuing “out of a sense of duty”. The US government in particular has repeatedly praised the 64-year-old for his leadership since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Stoltenberg did an “incredible job,” said President Joe Biden in mid-June.
In recent months, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and British Defense Minister Ben Wallace have been considered possible candidates to succeed Stoltenberg. However, both were not without controversy.
The argument against Wallace in EU countries was that he was never head of state or government and that he did not come from an EU country. Opponents of Frederiksen pointed out, among other things, that the important NATO post should not be filled again with someone from the north. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who could need a new job in just under three weeks after the early parliamentary elections, was recently mentioned as an alternative.
In view of the difficult search for a new NATO Secretary General, more and more politicians had recently shown themselves open to a further extension of the Stoltenberg Treaty. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently said that if no agreement can be reached on the successor, the Western Defense Alliance cannot exist without Secretary General. That’s why he would be in favor of an extension, especially since he appreciates working with Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg has been NATO Secretary General for almost nine years now. His term of office was last extended by another year to September 30, 2023 in March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Actually, the former Norwegian head of government announced his departure last year. The plan was to return home. Stoltenberg could have become head of the Norwegian central bank there.
In the history of the alliance, Stoltenberg is already the second longest-serving Secretary General. The Dutchman Joseph Luns has been the Alliance’s highest international official for the longest time. He served from 1971 to 1984.