NYT: Washington is considering Canadaʼs Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland as the next NATO Secretary General

The USA sees Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland with Ukrainian roots as the next Secretary General of NATO. The term of office of the current head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, should expire in the fall of 2023.

This was reported by The New York Times with reference to American officials familiar with the progress of the discussion on this issue.

Although officials cautioned that this is only the beginning, and very often the names that emerge first do not survive negotiations among the 30 NATO members, they said that one main candidate has emerged in Washington: Chrystia Freeland, the Ukrainian-born Canadian finance minister who previously was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Her advantages are significant: she knows English, French, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian, has managed complex institutions, knows how to conduct press conferences and other public speeches, and will also become the first woman and the first Canadian to ever lead NATO.

The United States does not nominate an American candidate because the American general is traditionally the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, but has a strong voice in the selection.

The European Union, in turn, would like the next head of NATO to be from a member state. While Europeans have yet to unite around a single candidate, they also have several strong contenders, including women, including Kaia Kallas (Prime Minister of Estonia), Zuzana Čaputova (President of Slovakia), Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (was President of Croatia from 2015 to 2020 year and worked in NATO as an assistant to the general secretary for public diplomacy).

There are problems with all possible candidates, and a NATO representative may have suggested that member states could agree to extend Stoltenbergʼs term for another year. The choice may also be complicated by elections in the spring of 2024, when the new leadership of the European Union will be elected. This triggers a process of deep competition between member states as they share jobs.