Jens Stoltenberg is a guest of President Joe Biden one day late. The meeting that was supposed to take place on Monday was postponed because Biden had an intense toothache and had to have a root canal filled, of all things. President Joe Biden received Stoltenberg one day late. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP – US support for NATO is rock solid, Biden stated. He welcomed Stoltenberg and said that the two have a common strength in modernizing relations within NATO and in supporting the defense capabilities of Ukraine. Biden also emphasized that he would ensure that the NATO countries contribute sufficiently to the defense budgets – 2 percent. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and US foreign minister Antony Blinken also met on Tuesday in preparation for the next NATO summit in July. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP Earlier in the day, Stoltenberg met Foreign Minister Antony Blinken. He also praised Stoltenberg for the way he leads NATO. Both Stoltenberg and Blinken said that it is time to welcome Sweden into NATO at the defense alliance’s meeting in Vilnius in July. Biden will challenge The meeting takes place a week after Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was at the same place in what some media have called a “job interview”. Perhaps the most important topic in the meeting is expected to be Stoltenberg’s successor as NATO Secretary General. The competition for the job has intensified ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius in Lithuania in July. It is expected that Biden will challenge Stoltenberg on his views on who should replace him as NATO chief, writes Voice of America. Stoltenberg can influence who will succeed him. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP Stoltenberg’s view is important for Biden, writes the state broadcaster in the USA. – Many will turn to Stoltenberg and ask: Who do you think is best to lead the top job in NATO after you? That’s what Andrew Hyde, senior researcher at the Stimson Center tells VoA. It is uncertain how Stoltenberg will respond to the challenge. Until now, his official position has been to stay out of the debate over who should succeed him. It is public knowledge that Biden wanted Stoltenberg to extend his time in NATO by two years last year. But the French president Emanuelle Macron put his foot down, it was one year. Biden’s opinion of the top job in NATO is held very high since the US spends more than any of the other countries on defence. But the US does not have the right to veto, the chief job must at least outwardly show some form of consensus among the member states. Time for a woman The Defense Alliance has never had a woman as secretary general. – There is a perception that it is time for a woman to lead the alliance, says Hyde. Several names have been recorded, including the aforementioned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. After meeting with Biden last week, the Danish prime minister would not say whether the two had discussed the NATO job. Publicly, she has denied that she is a candidate for the job. On 5 June, the Danish Prime Minister was a guest of the American President. Several media referred to the meeting as a job interview. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP What may speak against Frederiksen is that her country is far from meeting NATO’s goal that all countries in the alliance should spend at least 2 percent of their national budget on defence. It is also used as an argument against her that Denmark had the top job before Stoltenberg in Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte also meet many of the requirements. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is on the list of possible candidates for the NATO job. Photo: ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP But leaders from the Baltic countries are perceived by many as rather “hawkish” in their relations with Russia. An appointment of top politicians from the Baltic countries can be perceived as a provocation in Moscow. Other women who are mentioned as possible candidates are President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Canada and Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova. Male candidates British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also met Biden last week and then spoke warmly of British Defense Minister Ben Wallace as the new chief executive. Biden called Wallace “very qualified” at a press conference with Sunak, but emphasized that the discussions in the alliance are still ongoing. Will the US president and other leaders turn the thumbs up to the British defense minister as NATO chief? Ben Wallace should be very interested in the job. Photo: UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY / Reuters The prime ministers of the Netherlands and Spain, Mark Rutte and Pedro Sanchéz, are also mentioned as being on a list of current candidates to succeed Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg and Biden are also expected to talk about the war in Ukraine and how Turkey will be persuaded to let Sweden into the alliance. Stoltenberg took the NATO chief’s chair in 2014, and his term has been extended three times. He should have finished his job last year, but agreed to extend it by one year after pressure from NATO countries, including as a result of the war in Ukraine. At the same time, he resigned from his position as central bank governor at Norges Bank. Tannverk canceled meeting Stoltenberg was scheduled to meet Biden at the White House on Monday. According to Biden’s doctor Kevin C. O’Connor, the president had severe toothache and therefore had to have a root canal during the morning hours. He then had to cancel the rest of today’s programme. O’Connor emphasizes that the dental visit was successful and without complications.
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg meets US President Joe Biden – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
