Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will become the next chairman of the Munich Security Conference, multiple sources confirmed to dpa on Thursday, following reports from news organizations Politico and Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
There was initially no official confirmation. A spokeswoman for the Munich Security Conference (MSC) told dpa that they do not comment on personnel matters as a matter of principle.
NATO also declined to comment. Stoltenberg is expected to assume the role of chair of the MSC after the International Security Conference meets in February 2025.
With Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, the world’s largest conference on foreign and security policy will be led by a non-German. The MSC was founded in 1963.
Every year in February, senior political and defense officials meet in southern Germany to discuss international security issues.
The current chair of the MSC is Christoph Heusgen, a former German ambassador to the United Nations between 2017 and 2021. Before that, Heusgen was foreign policy advisor to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005.
Heusgen only took over the chairmanship of the MSC from Wolfgang Ischinger in 2022. Ischinger is chairman of the MSC Foundation Council and founded the foundation in 2011.
According to RND, Ischinger is said to have described Stoltenberg as the “unbeatable best choice” for the position.
Stoltenberg has been NATO’s top official since 2014 and will be replaced on October 1 by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
