Romanian President Iohannis Confirms Run For Secretary-General Role

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has confirmed that he intends to seek the role of NATO secretary general, with incumbent Jens Stoltenberg's term coming to an end in October. Iohannis has served as Romania's head of state since 2014 and is not eligible to run in the September presidential election having served two five-year terms. He faces a difficult task in winning the requisite support to become NATO sec-gen, given that the US, UK, France, and Germany have all given their public backing to outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte.

• Iohannis is running on a platform of boosting the voice of Eastern Europe's NATO members given that they face the most stark threat from Russia close to the country's borders, and by-and-large have contributed more and spent more on defence as a proportion of GDP than many Western European members.
• Hungary has voiced its opposition to Rutte, decrying his gov'ts criticism of Budapest's policy agenda, while former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves questionedwhy Rutte - at the head of a gov't that consistently missed NATO spending targets for well over a decade - would be a good choice to lead the bloc.
• Senior NATO members, most notably the US, will want to avoid an acrimonious race to succeed Stoltenberg for fear of fostering divisions that could make reaching consensus more difficult and emboldening Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and threats against NATO members.