NATO chief Stoltenberg to end term in October

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will end his term as the head of the alliance in October. The announcement follows media reports that Stoltenberg was planning to extend his tenure as the NATO chief.

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said on Saturday that Stoltenberg will not extend another term and will be ending his tenure as the NATO chief as planned in October. This follows reports by the German Welt am Sonntag that Stoltenberg’s term was going to be extended again, as the alliance is looking to maintain its stability in the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“The mandate of Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been extended three times and he has served for a total of almost nine years,” said Lungescu. “The Secretary-General’s term comes to an end in October of this year and he has no intention to seek another extension of this mandate.”

Welt am Sonntag reported that NATO members wanted to give Stoltenberg the opportunity to chair the alliance’s 75th-anniversary summit that will be held in Washington in April 2024. Stoltenberg would also be in a position to become the head of the World Bank when David Malpass steps down, according to the outlet.

The outlet also alleged that there has yet to be a decision on who will succeed Stoltenberg. However, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and British defense minister Ben Wallace are allegedly among the top contenders for the position.

Meanwhile, the alliance’s members are expected to raise their munition stockpiles that have already been depleted due to the war as the members look to supply Ukraine with arms and put their own militaries on stable footing. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year, several NATO countries fell short of meeting the stockpiling targets as officials considered wars of attrition with large-scale artillery conflicts obsolete.

However, with the pace of arms deliveries to Ukraine, Western munitions inventories have been drained, highlighting flaws in the efficiency, speed, and manpower of supply chains. A NATO official familiar with the matter told Reuters that the alliance has just finished a survey of the remaining munitions stocks.