Jens Stoltenberg will wrap up a NATO summit for a final time at the helm

Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Jens Stoltenberg has said farewell to U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts after chairing his last NATO summit. Stoltenberg steps down as NATO’s 13th secretary-general in the fall, after one of the most tumultuous decades in alliance history. Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte takes over on Oct. 1. Only Joseph Luns, who spent 12 years in charge, has been secretary-general for longer. Stoltenberg signed on in 2014, the year that Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The move sparked a defense spending buildup that gathered pace over his term. Stoltenberg weathered a Trump presidency and led NATO through the chaotic exit from Afghanistan. Biden says he’s “a man of integrity and intellectual rigor.”