UPDATED: Stoltenberg to stay on as NATO chief until October 2023 as Russia wages war on Ukraine

BRUSSELS, March 24 (Reuters) – NATO allies on Thursday extended the term of Jens Stoltenberg at the helm of the Western military alliance by a year until Sept.30, 2023.

“As we face the biggest security crisis in a generation, we stand united to keep our alliance strong and our people safe,” Stoltenberg said in referring to Russia’s war against Ukraine, which borders eastern NATO members Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.

Stoltenberg’s current term expires on Oct. 1 and he had been due to take up a post as central bank governor of his native Norway by the end of 2022.

When asked on Wednesday whether he would stay on at NATO, Stoltenberg said any such decision was up to member-countries to make.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation”, has triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War Two and led Western nations to fundamentally rethink their defence policies. 

Stoltenberg, an economist by training and former leader of Norway’s Labour Party, was Norwegian prime minister from 2000-01 and 2005-13 before becoming NATO chief the following year. He has also been finance minister and energy minister.

The Norwegian government last month named deputy central bank chief Ida Wolden Bache governor of Norges Bank for up to nine months, with Stoltenberg slated to take the top job by year-end.

The central bank governor is in charge of setting interest rates and managing financial stability as well as overseeing Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest with assets of $1.4 trillion.

Photo – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg . EPA-EFE/TOM BRENNER