© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a news conference at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman
BERLIN (Reuters) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will finish his term as scheduled in October, an alliance spokesman said, after a newspaper reported a new extension was in the works.
“Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s term has been extended three times and he has served for a total of almost nine years,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said late on Saturday.
“The secretary-general’s term comes to an end in October this year and he has no intention of requesting another extension of his term.”
Earlier, Welt am Sonntag reported that Stoltenberg’s term would be extended again as the alliance sought to maintain stability during the war in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg, an economist by training and former leader of the Norwegian Labor Party, extended his NATO tenure last year.
He was Norway’s prime minister from 2000 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2013 before becoming NATO chief the following year. He has also been Minister of Finance and Minister of Energy.
Welt said alliance members wanted to give Stoltenberg the chance to chair the organization’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington in April 2024. He would also be in a position to become World Bank president when David Malpass resigns around the same time. , said.
No decision has been made on who will succeed Stoltenberg, but Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace are among the leading candidates for the job, Welt said.