NATO, Unable to Agree on a New Leader, Keeps Stoltenberg
livemint.comNATO members, unable to agree on a new leader for the military alliance amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, extended Secretary–General Jens Stoltenberg’s mandate by one year. Stoltenberg, who recently said he had no plans to remain in the office he has held since October 2014, said he was honored by the decision, which is the fourth time his initial four-yearterm has been extended. He will serve through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 75th anniversary next April, and a summit in Washington next summer.
NATO members had hoped to replace the 64-year-old Stoltenberg, whose current term was set to run until Oct. 1, and who has guided the 31-country alliance through its biggest transformation since the end of the Cold War. A former Norwegian prime minister, he took office at NATO months after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in early 2014 and then fomented rebellions in its east.
Since then, he has led a rebuilding of NATO defenses near Russia. NATO also worked closely with Ukraine from 2014 until Russia’s large-scale invasion last year to modernize and reorganize the country’s military. Ukrainian and Western military officials have said those years of work were crucial in Kyiv’s success last year repelling Russia’s effort to grab the capital city and conclude its campaign within days.
Stoltenberg, who has advocated relentlessly on behalf of Ukraine while keeping NATO out of direct involvement in the war, has also overseen the alliance’s biggest expansion in years. Following Russia’s invasion last year, Finland and Sweden shed decades of nonalignment and applied to join NATO. Finland joined in April, while Sweden awaits approval from Hungary and Turkey, which have raised objections with its
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