Jens Stoltenberg: Norway’s ex-PM appointed NATO’s next secretary general

Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s ex-prime minister, has been appointed NATO’s next secretary general, replacing Denmark’s Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Jens Stoltenberg will take over as leader of the 28-nation military alliance in October, when Fogh Rasmussen steps down after a NATO summit in Wales.

Fogh Rasmussen has headed NATO for the past five years.

Jens Stoltenberg was prime minister of Norway at the time of Anders Breivik’s bomb and gun attacks in 2011.

Anders Breivik killed 77 people when he targeted government buildings in Oslo and young people and officials at a youth camp run by Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor party.

Jens Stoltenberg served as Norway’s prime minister twice, for 18 months in 2000-01 and again from 2005 to 2013.

Fogh Rasmussen said on Twitter that Jens Stoltenberg was “the right man to build on NATO’s record of strength and success”.

In its statement, NATO said: “Mr. Stoltenberg will assume his functions as secretary general as from 1 October 2014, when Mr. Fogh Rasmussen’s term expires after five years and two months at the helm of the alliance.”