67-year-old J. Stoltenberg, who led the transatlantic defense alliance for a decade, was appointed in 2024 to lead this annual event, which is one of the largest meetings dedicated to security and defense issues.
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However, he postponed taking over the duties after his friend, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, invited him to work in the government at the beginning of 2025.
On Monday, both countries announced that J. Stoltenberg will share the chairmanship of the conference with German diplomat Helga Schmid.
“The handover of duties from the long-time chairman, Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, to two new co-chairs will take place in due time before February 2027, so they can organize the upcoming Munich Security Conference,” the MSC statement said.
The Norwegian Ministry of Finance stated that J. Stoltenberg “will not be the executive director,” but will retain his place on the MSC Foundation Board.
“It will be a more visible role, especially during the annual conference, but apart from that, the workload related to MSC for Finance Minister Stoltenberg will not change significantly,” the ministry said in an email to the news agency AFP.
On Monday, J. Stoltenberg, quoted by the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN), said: “It is more important for me to be the Finance Minister in Norway than the leader in Munich.”
