NATO 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 application.
President Biden said he welcomed Stoltenberg’s extension. “With his steady leadership, experience, and judgment, Secretary-General Stoltenberg has brought our alliance through the most significant challenges in European security since World War II,” he said.
The extension of Stoltenberg’s term comes one week before NATO leaders gather in Vilnius, Lithuania, for their annual summit, where they plan to focus on support for Ukraine and approve sweeping plans to bolster alliance armed forces. Stoltenberg’s term extension is scheduled for final approval there.
The gathering promises to be contentious because NATO members disagree on what sort of pledge they should offer Ukraine on its joining the alliance. In 2008, NATO members promised membership to Ukraine and Georgia but gave no timing or specifics.
Ukraine and many of its neighbors now want a plan for it to join. The U.S., Germany and some other members prefer to focus on helping Kyiv fight Russia, rather than discussing membership.
In Vilnius, Stoltenberg will also have to navigate disputes over military spending among members, who in 2014 pledged to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on their militaries by next year. Only about one-third do that now.
Stoltenberg is the second prime minister to lead NATO, following former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and members have said appointing a national leader to the helm has been useful, thanks to their status and connections. Members have also said that the next secretary-general should be a woman, following 13 male NATO leaders.
Among candidates discussed recently to replace Stoltenberg were Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, though neither drew sufficient support.
Stoltenberg’s reappointment has been widely expected since last month. Kallas said last week that “the new NATO secretary-general is the good old NATO secretary-general.”
Stoltenberg is already NATO’s second-longest serving secretary-general after Joseph Luns, a former Dutch foreign minister who served from 1971 to 1984.
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