Jens Stoltenberg will remain general secretary of the Nato for another year from the end of his mandate, until 1 October 2024. The news had been circulating for weeks now, but today the definitive agreement was reached between the member countries of the Atlantic Alliance who will formalize the decision over the next NATO summit in Vilnius, on 11 and 12 July. “The Allies thanked the Secretary-General for his leadership and his commitment which have been instrumental in preserving transatlantic unity in the face of security challenges unprecedented”, reads a note published on the NATO website. “I am honored by the Allies’ decision to extend my mandate as Secretary General: the transatlantic link between Europe and North America has ensured our freedom and security for almost 75 years and, in a more dangerous worldour great Alliance is more important than ever,” Stoltenberg said.
The choice to keep the former Norwegian prime minister at the helm of the Atlantic Pact it’s a continuity signaldespite the fact that he has repeatedly reiterated that he has no intention of reapplying for that position, also due in part to the need to carry on with the management of fundamental dossiers such as obviously the conflict in Ukrainebut also the enlargement to the Sweden and the formula that will have to be found to satisfy the security needs of Kiev. It was Stoltenberg himself who affirmed, in mid-June, that he did not see any “space for the extension of my mandate. My successor must be chosen from the 31 allies. I am responsible for the decisions that are made in the alliance except one, which is the choice of who will succeed me”. And he then explained that he has “other plans” for the future. In those hours, however, the international media were already spreading the indiscretion according to which the member states had asked the former Finnish prime minister to extend its mandate, in a situation where continuity was required. An assessment that Stoltenberg himself must have considered valid.
In recent weeks, many names have circulated. One of the most important is that of the current president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. His candidacy was made more complicated by the fact that his tenure at the helm of Palazzo Berlaymont expires in the summer of 2024, while the one in Stoltenberg should have ended in October 2023. With this postponement, however, this problem has been solved. Even if it was the president of the Commission who excluded her own candidacy: “I’m definitely not available”, she explained.
It is also not yet clear which name is pleasing to Washington and without which it is difficult to think of a new appointment. Among the possible candidates well seen by the White House are the Danish premier Mette Frederiksen which he recently met his own Joe Biden. The other was that of the UK Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace. But it was precisely the person concerned who denied this possibility: “Not gonna happen – he declared – The new general secretary will have to have the approval of both President Biden and Macron” who, in his opinion, will hardly be able to converge on him at this moment.