No decision has been made about who will succeed Stoltenberg
\n BERLIN
\nNATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will end his term as planned in October, a spokesperson for the alliance said, after a newspaper reported a further extension was in the works.
\n\u201cThe mandate of Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been extended three times, and he has served for a total of almost nine years,\u201d NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said late on Saturday.
\n\u201cThe Secretary-General\u2019s term comes to an end in October of this year and he has no intention to seek another extension of his mandate.\u201d
\nEarlier, Welt am Sonntag reported Stoltenberg\u2019s term was to be extended again as the alliance sought to maintain stability during the war in Ukraine.
\nStoltenberg, an economist by training and a former leader of Norway\u2019s Labour Party, had his NATO term extended last year.
\nHe was prime minister of Norway from 2000-01 and 2005-13 before becoming NATO chief the following year. He has also been finance minister and energy minister.
\nWelt said alliance members wanted to give Stoltenberg the opportunity to chair the organisation\u2019s 75th anniversary summit in Washington in April 2024. He would also be in a position to become president of the World Bank when David Malpass steps down around the same time, it said.
\nNo decision has been made about who will succeed Stoltenberg, but Spain\u2019s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Britain\u2019s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace are among the leading candidates for the post, Welt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No decision has been made about who will succeed Stoltenberg BERLIN NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will end his term as planned in October, a spokesperson for the alliance said, after a newspaper reported a further extension was in the works. \u201cThe mandate of Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been extended three times, and he has served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-313534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n