page_title: Jens Stoltenberg
section_title: NATO Secretary General (2014–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Jens Stoltenberg / Career / NATO Secretary General (2014–present)
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speak before members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization signed an Accession Protocol to continue Montenegro's admission to the alliance amid its biannual Foreign Ministerial Meetings on May 19, 2016, at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: Jens Stoltenberg is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Labour Party, he was Prime Minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2013.
  In 2011, Stoltenberg received the United Nations Foundation's Champion of Global Change Award, chosen for his extraordinary effort toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals and bringing fresh ideas to global problems.
  The mission of Jens Stoltenberg as secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was extended for another two years. Stoltenberg has been responsible for the past five years and is set to lead NATO until 2022.
context_section_description: On 28 March 2014 NATO's North Atlantic Council appointed Stoltenberg as designated successor of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the 13th Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the council, effective from 1 October 2014. The appointment had been widely expected in the media for some time, and commentators pointed out that the alliance's policies toward Russia will be the most important issue faced by Stoltenberg. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, took the initiative to appoint Stoltenberg as Secretary-General, securing the support first of the United States, then of the United Kingdom, and then of all other member states. Norway was a founding member of NATO in 1949, and Stoltenberg is the first Norwegian to serve as Secretary-General, although former Conservative Party Prime Minister Kåre Willoch was considered a strong candidate in 1988.
  In June 2015, Stoltenberg said: "I believe we don't see any immediate threat against any NATO country from the east. Our goal is still cooperation with Russia … That serves NATO and it serves Russia."
  In September 2015, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Andrej Babiš criticized NATO's lack of response to the European migrant crisis. After talks with Stoltenberg on migrant crisis issue Babiš said: "NATO is not interested in refugees, though Turkey, a NATO member, is their entrance gate to Europe and smugglers operate on Turkish territory".
  Stoltenberg strongly condemned the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt and expressed full support for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government. He did not condemn the 2016–present purges in Turkey. In November 2016, Stoltenberg admitted that some "Turkish officers working in NATO command structures... have requested asylum in the countries where they are working."
  In 2016, Stoltenberg stated that the NATO strongly supported "the UN-led political process to find a solution" to the dispute over the northern part of Cyprus, which has been under illegal occupation since the Turkish invasion of 1974.
  In 2017, Stoltenberg warned that Russia has used big military exercises, including Zapad 2017 exercise in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus, "as a disguise or a precursor for aggressive military actions against their neighbours."
  In January 2018, in response to the Turkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds from the enclave of Afrin, Stoltenberg said that Turkey is "the NATO Ally which has suffered most from terrorist attacks over many years and Turkey, as all of the countries, have the right to self defence, but it is important that this is done in a proportionate and measured way."
  In February 2018, Stoltenberg stated: "We don’t see any threat [from Russia] against any NATO ally and therefore, I’m always careful speculating too much about hypothetical situations." Stoltenberg welcomed the 2018 Russia–United States summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland. He said NATO is not trying to isolate Russia.
  In March 2019, Stoltenberg stated that the former Soviet republic of "Georgia will become a member of NATO".
  In April 2019, Stoltenberg warned a joint session of the U.S. Congress of threat posed by Russia. In May 2019, Stoltenberg hailed Turkey's contribution to NATO. He said: "Turkey joined the Alliance in 1952, and it continues to be a highly valued member of our family of nations. As secretary-general, I greatly appreciate all that Turkey does for our Alliance."
  In August 2019, Stoltenberg warned that NATO needs to "address the rise of China," by closely cooperating with Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
  Stoltenberg "strongly condemned" the 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack on key Saudi Arabia's oil facilities and accused Iran of "supporting different terrorist groups and being responsible for destabilising the whole region."
  In October 2019, Turkey invaded the Kurdish areas in Syria. Stoltenberg said that Turkey has "legitimate security concerns" during press conference with Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
  The U.S. military's 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, which killed the high-level Ira
caption: Stoltenberg and Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic attend a NATO foreign ministers meeting on 19 May 2016
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