2023-07-04 20:20:01
“NATO, unable to agree on a new leader, keeps Stoltenberg”, titre The Wall Street Journal, summarizing the logic of consensus which presided over the renewal for one year of the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, decided on July 4th.
“NATO members were hoping to find a replacement for Stoltenberg, 64, whose current term runs until October 1 and who is leading the 31-nation alliance through its biggest transformation since the end of the Cold War.” , notes the New York daily.
They did not succeed. “Among the candidates recently mooted to take over were Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Estonian counterpart Kaja Kallas, but neither has garnered enough support.”
Former Norwegian Prime Minister “is already the second secretary general in history in terms of longevity”, recalls the newspaper.
No time to change your mind
Various factors pleaded for this choice of continuity, which “started to become an open secret in recent days”, écrit The country.
“On the one hand, the situation: we are at a key moment in the Russian war in Ukraine and cracks have started to appear in the Kremlin […] which makes a change of head at NATO more delicate than ever. To which is added the absence of a candidate (we preferably wanted a woman, the first to lead the alliance) with enough support to succeed him”, explains the Spanish newspaper.
“The Norwegian, who has already served two normal four-year terms, has had his name put up for a first extraordinary one-year extension in 2022, after the Russian invasion. […] From now on, Stoltenberg will remain in place, in principle, until October 2024.”
A summit that promises to be thorny
His renewal comes a week before the summit of NATO leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania (July 11-12), where his task will not be easy. “This meeting promises to be heated as members disagree on what kind of commitment they should offer Ukraine over membership,” notice The Wall Street Journal.
Fifteen years after being promised to join the alliance, “Ukraine now wants a roadmap, like many of its neighbours. The United States, Germany and others prefer to focus on supporting Kiev against Russia, rather than talking about joining.”
“In Vilnius, Stoltenberg will also have to deal with disputes over military spending among members, who promised in 2014 to spend at least 2% of their GDP on their army,” add The Wall Street Journal. Only a minority of NATO states are keeping this commitment today.
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