Telegraph: Sunak will persuade Biden to support appointment of Wallace as NATO head

MOSCOW, June 5 – RIA Novosti. During his upcoming visit to the United States, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may try to persuade US President Joe Biden to support the candidacy of British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace for the new post of NATO Secretary General. informs telegraph newspaper.

Earlier, the British Times reported that Sunak and Biden will discuss the creation of “barriers” to the promotion of artificial intelligence (AI) during the British Prime Minister’s visit to the United States on June 7-8. ) and the establishment of an international body to control artificial intelligence in the IAEA model. At the same time, Sunak stated that he intends to raise the issue of the threat of the destruction of humanity by artificial intelligence.

Rishi Sunak will use his trip to Washington this week to persuade Joe Biden to support the British defense minister for a senior NATO mission.

At the same time, it was noted that the British Prime Minister had already raised the issue of the appointment of Wallace as the General Secretary of the alliance on the sidelines of the last meeting of the leaders of the G7 countries, held in Hiroshima, Japan.

As the author of the article emphasizes, the head of the British Ministry of Defense is quite popular in the United States due to his “central role in building an international support coalition for Ukraine” and the increase in the kingdom’s defense spending. “Up to 2.25%”. However, he also mentions that Wallace’s candidacy for the post of NATO Secretary General may not be supported by France and Germany. In addition, some member states of the alliance may support the candidacy of the “first woman” as the potential new head of NATO in the person of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

In mid-May, Ben Wallace announced in an interview with the DPA that he was interested in being appointed NATO Secretary General. At the same time, as the agency noted, Wallace has made it clear that he is satisfied with his current position as UK Secretary of Defense.

The current NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, was supposed to resign on October 1, 2022, but in March of the same year, the leaders of the alliance countries decided to extend his mandate until September 30, 2023. In December, the Secretary-General stated himself that he has no plans to extend his mandate and that he is focused on work until the end of September 2023.

Later, Politico said, referring to EU and NATO diplomats, that, according to them, Stoltenberg “wants to stay”. In April, an RIA Novosti source familiar with the negotiations on the candidacy of a new alliance secretary-general said that his tenure as NATO Secretary-General could be extended as he positively evaluated the alliance’s key members Jens Stoltenberg’s approach to the conflict in Ukraine.

However, despite this, Stoltenberg himself said after his resignation that he did not plan to stay for a new term in mid-May, even if he received such an offer in October.