Former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has given up the sole chairmanship of the Munich Security Conference in order to focus on his duties as Norway's finance minister, the parties involved said on Monday.
The 67-year-old, who served as head of the transatlantic defence alliance for a decade, was appointed in 2024 to lead the annual event, one of the biggest annual gatherings on security and defence issues.
But he postponed taking up the post after being called into government by Norway's Labour prime minister, his friend Jonas Gahr Store, in early 2025.
On Monday the two sides announced that Stoltenberg will ultimately share the duties of chairing the conference with German diplomat Helga Schmid.
"The handover of duties from long-time Chair Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger to the two new co-chairs will take place in due time ahead of February 2027 to allow them to host the upcoming Munich Security Conference," the MSC said in a statement.
Norway's finance ministry said Stoltenberg "will not be an executive leader" but will keep his seat on the MSC's Foundation Council.
"This will involve a more visible role, particularly during the annual conference, but beyond that, the workload related to the MSC will not change significantly for Finance Minister Stoltenberg," the ministry said in an email to AFP.
Quoted by the Dagens Naeringsliv (DN) newspaper on Monday, Stoltenberg had said: "For me, it is more important to be finance minister in Norway than to be the boss in Munich."
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