NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has decided to appoint Romanian Mircea Geoana as the next Deputy Secretary General. Geoana will replace Rose Gottemoeller from the United States, who took up her position in October 2016, according to a NATO announcement. The change will become effective in mid-October 2019.

Mircea Geoana will thus become the Romanian with the highest position in an international organization.

“I am happy to announce the appointment of Mircea Geoana as the next Deputy Secretary General. He is a staunch advocate of the transatlantic bond and will bring long experience as a statesman and diplomat to this post. He will be the first Romanian to hold this senior office,” Stoltenberg said.

Mircea Geoana is the founder and president of the Aspen Institute Romania. He previously served as president of the Romanian Senate, foreign affairs minister, and Romania’s Ambassador to the United States.

Geoana was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the biggest political party in Romania, from 2005 until 2009. He also ran for president in 2009 against Traian Basescu and lost. That episode is a memorable one, as the exit polls indicated Geoana as the probable winner of the elections. He thus held a victory speech in the evening of the elections only to concede defeat the next day, as the official results were in Basescu’s favor.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: NATO website)