Jens Stoltenberg will remain as Secretary General of NATO until 1 October 2024. The extension was made public today, Tuesday, and will be supported by all the leaders of the NATO countries during the summit in Vilnius on 11-12. July. In a statement, Stoltenberg says: – I am honored by the NATO allies’ decision to extend my term as Secretary General, he says and adds: – The transatlantic ties between Europe and North America have protected our freedom and security for almost 75 years, and in a more dangerous world, our strong alliance is more important than ever. Was on his way home All year, Jens Stoltenberg has answered roughly the same thing: That he has no other plans than to end his work in NATO in the autumn and return home to Norway. And that NATO’s 31 member states will manage to find an “excellent successor”. The latter turned out not to be so easy. Therefore, there will be no elimination of the chief’s office in NATO headquarters in Brussels before next autumn, neither for Stoltenberg nor his closest circle of advisers. The Ukraine war prevents Oslo return Jens Stoltenberg, who was originally elected for four years, is now entering his tenth year as head of the defense alliance. Only the Dutchman Joseph Luns, who was manager between 1971 and 1984, is ahead of the statistics. Jens Stoltenberg – second longest serving in NATO Jens Stoltenberg is already the second longest serving secretary general in NATO’s 74-year history. Most of the predecessors have only served the four-year period for which they are first appointed. Only the Dutchman Joseph Luns will have a longer time as chief than Stoltenberg. Luns ruled the defense alliance between 1971 and 1984. The last two secretaries-general before Stoltenberg, Dutch Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and Danish Anders Fogh Rasmussen, served for five years. Jens Stoltenberg took office as NATO chief on 1 October 2014. His term expired in autumn 2018, but has since been extended three times. Already in 2017, Stoltenberg was asked if he would consider extending his term by two years, to autumn 2020. To which he agreed. In the spring of 2019, the question came up again: This time whether he could sit for another two years, until 1 October 2022. This time, too, he agreed. Just over half a year before he was due to return home to Oslo and the task of central bank governor, Russia proceeded to full invasion of neighboring Ukraine. And the question came up again: Could he stay in the chief’s chair a little longer? Stoltenberg resigned from his job at Norges Bank and stayed in Brussels. The last extension expires on 30 September 2023. Several, including the American president, wanted Stoltenberg to stay in the secretary-general job for two more years. That it ended with one year is due to France. It is well known in diplomatic circles that the French and the French president are not quite as enthusiastic about the former Norwegian prime minister as, for example, the American one. The original period has been extended three times. The last two are due to the war in Ukraine. – It is not safe to change captain in the middle of a storm, an experienced Nato diplomat said last week to the website Euractiv. US President Joe Biden in particular has pushed for Stoltenberg to continue as NATO chief. As news wrote in June, the matter came up again during the NATO chief’s last visit to the White House. Jens Stoltenberg and Joe Biden together in the White House in June. None of those who were mentioned as potential successors to Stoltenberg are said to have convinced the American president. Therefore, it ends with another year for the Norwegian. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP Then Joe Biden urgently asked Stoltenberg to stay put. The American president, the foreign minister and the defense minister have a very good relationship with the Norwegian, and say they are impressed by how he has kept the alliance together through crisis after crisis. Although the “consensus model” applies, and all 31 member states must agree on decisions that are made, the “big four” – the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France – have a lot to say. And most of all the USA. NATO’s 31 member countries From its formation in 1949: Belgium Canada Denmark France Iceland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Portugal United Kingdom USA From 1952: From 1955: From 1982: From 1990: Germany (East Germany and West Germany became one country) From 1999: From 2004: Bulgaria Estonia Latvia Lithuania Romania Slovakia Slovenia From 2009: From 2017: From 2020: From 2023: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on 6 July. At the penultimate extension – after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, it was France that said no to two new years for Stoltenberg and agreed to only one. Now it still ends up with a total of two. Photo: Christophe Ena / AP The reasons why he remains These are the main reasons why the former Norwegian prime minister is not packing up his affairs as planned: No agreement on a successor: It has become important for more and more people that the secretary-general has experience as head of government or head of state. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will not, and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and Spain’s Pedro Sanchéz, who are said to have been involved in the name discussion, did not gather enough support. Ukraine war: The Ukrainian spring offensive came later than expected, so it is too early to say how the offensive will end. And where the whole war ends. Many therefore wanted no intense discussion of names now, when the focus should be on the war and support for Ukraine. Letting someone take over the central role in the middle of the war is considered risky. Turkey and Erdogan: Fear of new demands from Turkey and more confusion around Sweden’s entry into NATO. Turkey is already putting sticks in the wheels of the Swedes and several feared that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would come up with new demands to support a successor. Stoltenberg has personally invested a lot of time and effort to get Finland and Sweden into NATO in record time, and many believe he is the best person to persuade Erdogan. “Steady captain under the storms”: Stoltenberg gets much of the credit for the fact that the NATO countries kept calm and that Poland did not trigger the alliance’s Article 4 when an unknown piece of rocket landed within the country’s border. He is praised for the way NATO came out of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Kabul on, when the US withdrew its forces without notifying its allies. Together with Biden, Stoltenberg has been the most central in uniting the NATO countries and securing the massive support for Ukraine. He has also brought Nato and the EU closer together, but ensured that Nato is in the driver’s seat when it comes to the alliance’s core tasks. He is still called the “Trump Wiper”, after the turbulent years when the then Donald Trump constantly threatened to pull the US out of Nato . Willing to reform: Stoltenberg has spearheaded a number of reforms within NATO, including new long-term strategy and the building of a rapid response force in addition to the existing multinational emergency response force. He is also a driving force for member states to spend more money on defence. The USA and the EU: “It does not lead to anything. The Americans want Stoltenberg,” said British Defense Minister Ben Wallace when he withdrew from the race to become the new NATO chief. There are also disagreements among the countries that are members of both NATO and the EU as to whether the next secretary-general must be from an EU country or whether a non-EU candidate can be accepted. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg together in The Hague at the end of June. Rutte is said to be among the most likely to succeed Stoltenberg, said to have declined twice. Photo: REMKO DE WAAL / AFP Leave the leadership ball dead There have been concerns within NATO circles about how it will appear from the outside that the member states are unable to agree on someone who can take over. Whether it can be perceived as a sign of weakness. Already this spring, several sources said that time to find a replacement before the July 11-12 summit in Vilnius was running out. That is why, among other things, Germany was quick to leave the leadership discussion dead when it became clear that there was not a clear enough successor. “Stoltenberg should continue if he wants to,” declared Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, agreeing with the US. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, German defense minister Boris Pistorius (centre) and Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda visit a German-Lithuanian exercise in Lithuania. Photo: PETRAS MALUKAS / AFP Stoltenberg will now remain in office until next autumn, and thus also get to take part in the anniversary celebrations in Washington next spring. There, Nato will celebrate its 75th anniversary, in the city where the Atlantic Pact was signed on 4 April 1949. This photo from the summit in London in December 2019, when Nato was to mark its 70th anniversary, has gone down in history. Jens Stoltenberg was considered one of the few who managed to handle former US President Donald Trump. Photo: Francisco Seco/AP
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Jens Stoltenberg will be NATO chief for one more year – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
