Goodbye Stoltenberg

As reported by the world media, citing several well-informed sources, Stoltenberg is to replace Christoph Heusgen (69), a former senior diplomat and long-time adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who headed the MSC for only two years.

Stoltenberg, who spent a decade at the helm of the North Atlantic Alliance, will hand over the position of Secretary General to former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in October.

According to Wolfgang Ischinger, the head of the Munich Conference for many years and the current chairman of the board of the MSC Foundation, "Stoltenberg is incomparably the best choice".

The highly influential Bild tabloid recalls that "Heusgen became famous, among other things, for his scandalous statements about the terrorist attack by Hamas." For the German public service ZDF, two weeks after the terrorist attack by Hamas in October 2023, Heusgen gave an interview in which he did not utter a single critical word about the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas. He did not condemn Iran, which sponsors terror, but instead attacked the Jewish state, Bild reminds.

Referring to sources in the government circles of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the influential magazine Spiegel believes that "Heusgen should not be replaced, let alone fired" and adds that, "he will probably remain active on the board of the MSC Foundation".

The chairmen of the MSC, for many years, were Horst Teltschik and Wolfgang Ischinger. Teltschik, a former advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, presided over this institution from 1999 to 2008.

The Munich Security Conference, founded in 1963, has developed into one of the most important international forums on security policy, primarily when it comes to NATO members.

Every year, high-ranking politicians, defense ministers of the Alliance, military experts and representatives of the arms industry gather at the "Bayerischer Hof" hotel in the capital of the German federal state of Bavaria to discuss the challenges posed by the current security situation to statesmen.