Jens Stoltenberg: The Nato chief seeking to prevent a third world war

Diplomacy runs in the veins of the Norwegian former prime minister’s family – but there is much more to him than that, writes Chris Stevenson

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg will need all of his nous to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (PA Media)

We have to see that Russia changes its behaviour and its actions and returns to compliance with international law and its obligations.”

Those are the words of Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato – but not about Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine. Instead, this is one of Stoltenberg’s first speeches after taking over the Nato near the end of 2014, and he is talking about Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea earlier that year.

The political strategies used by Moscow have actually studded the life of Stoltenberg, the first-ever Nato chief appointed from a country that shares a border with Russia. Although the language he has used in recent weeks has certainly been stronger, the thread of there being value in international cooperation has also been a constant of Stoltenberg’s world view. He said recently: “President Putin must stop this war. Immediately. Withdraw his forces – now. And engage in diplomacy in good faith.”

Stoltenberg, 63, has gained a reputation in diplomatic circles for his willingness to listen and openness to ideas – and this goes back to his upbringing. Politics and public service runs in the family – in fact, a Stoltenberg being head of Nato would seem quite natural, but most would have probably said it would have been Jens’s father, Thorvald, a Norwegian diplomat and former defence and foreign minister who was tipped for the post back in the 1990s.

So far so by the numbers for a person of Jens’s position – and the CV reads in a similar fashion. An early career that included a degree in economics at Oslo University, a stint as leader of the Norwegian Labour Youth – affiliated with the country’s Labour Party, which Stoltenberg joined relatively early – a job at Statistics Norway (after a dalliance with journalism) and some teaching at Oslo University.

But if you look closer at Stoltenberg’s family life, it is clear there is plenty there that helped shape a man strong in his ideals. Alongside the movements of his father – the family spent some time in Belgrade when Jens was young – his mother was a geneticist and civil servant who went into government too. Speaking about her on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs a couple of years ago, Jens said: “My mother was a very strong feminist ... She was one of the first to formulate what we call modern family policy in Norway.”

Born in 1959, Jens was the second of three children, either side of two sisters. Jen’s younger sister, Nini, become a TV personality and was also known for being a drug addict. She died in 2014, a few months before Jens took up his role at Nato. Speaking about Nini’s death later, Stoltenberg said: “It is something I will never be able to explain... why in a family of three children – my little sister growing up in the same room that I did – she becomes a drug addict and passes away far too early.”

Stoltenberg’s older sister, Camilla – the current director-general of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health – was a big influence in his youth. She took him to anti-Vietnam war demonstrations where anti-Nato songs were sung. Speaking to the BBC Camilla said that her brother was a “very sweet boy – he was kind and curious”. In his own words Stoltenberg said that he “struggled to read ... struggled to write” in his youth. Camilla remembers him conquering that around the age of 10 and that the first book she recalls him reading completely was about the siege of Leningrad.

The pair married in 1987, and now have two grown-up children, but Ingrid was wary of the effect on their family if both were in international diplomacy/politics

With their parents active in the Labour movement, politicians and leaders would be invited around the Stoltenberg’s breakfast table – not least Nelson Mandela. (In his appearance on Desert Island Discs Stoltenberg would make “Free Nelson Mandela” by The Special AKA one of his choices – as well as “So Long Marianne” by Leonard Cohen, “Hungry Heart” by American rocker Bruce Springsteen, and “No Harm” by Norwegian electronic music duo Smerz, an act that includes his daughter.)

“They were interested in all kinds of people – African freedom fighters and Russian – I don’t know – spies,” Camilla later told the BBC of her and Jens’s parents. Oddly, Stoltenberg was actually given a code name of “Steklov” by the KGB after he had contact with a Russian diplomat in Oslo at the end of the 1980s.

Stoltenberg would eventually enter the Norwegian parliament as an MP in the early 1990s, not that his wife Ingrid Schulerud – a diplomat herself who is the current Norwegian ambassador to Belgium – was best pleased. The pair married in 1987, and now have two grown-up children, but Ingrid was wary of the effect on their family if both were in international diplomacy/politics.

By 2000, Stoltenberg was in the upper echelons of his party and was offered the chance to form a government from opposition when the then prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik stepped down. However, even Stoltenberg admits that he tried to move too quickly in his first stint as prime minister, particularly over reforms to the welfare state. The Labour Party paid for it at the ballot box in 2001, with the party gaining just 24 per cent in national elections – its worst results since the first quarter of the 20th century. As a result, Bondevik replaced Stoltenberg in office.

In 2005, Stoltenberg led a centre-left coalition of the Labour Party, Socialist Left Party, and Centre Party to government – albeit narrowly, repeating the trick in 2009. His time in office included increasing the defence spending and reforming the Norwegian armed forces – something Stoltenberg’s Nato biographies are at pains to point out. Norway also provided troops for the Nato military mission in Afghanistan and aircraft to patrol a Nato-led no-fly zone over Libya.

In another example of his stance towards dealing with Moscow, in 2010, Stoltenberg and Russia’s then president Dmitry Medvedev announced the end of a bitter dispute over the maritime borders of the two nations in the Barents Sea, that had been festering for 40 years. “This is a historic day,” Stoltenberg said at the time. “We have reached a breakthrough in the most important outstanding issue between Norway and the Russian Federation.” At a Nato summit in Lisbon that year Stoltenberg called for cooperation with Moscow, saying, “We will make a fresh start in our relations with Russia, with the aim of building a strategic partnership.”

Stoltenberg’s biggest test in his homeland came a year later on 22 July 2011 with a terrible twin attack – a bombing in the government district of Oslo and a gun attack at a youth camp being held by the country’s Labour Party on the island of Utøya. Eight were killed in the bombing and 69 in the gun attack, most of them teenagers. Anders Breivik was convicted of the attacks. Stoltenberg would later describe how Utøya – which he said had been his “childhood paradise” – had been “transformed into hell”.

I think if you had asked 30 or 40 years ago when we met whether he would become secretary-general of Nato, I think I would absolutely told you that is not possible ... life is unpredictable

Ingrid Schulerud, Stoltenberg’s wife

Stoltenberg was at his official residence at the time of the bombing – he was due to be in his office in the government district but decided to stay at home to write a speech to be given on Utøya the next day as he could “concentrate better”. The pain that Stoltenberg felt appeared clear when he meet with relatives of those killed the next day. “My job was to comfort people, to support them. I only first started crying later,” he told Der Spiegel. “I was reading the headline of the country’s biggest daily newspaper, which read: ‘Today, We Are All Members of the Young Socialists’. That’s when I suddenly had to start crying. That gave me an idea of how unexpectedly people behave in an extreme situation.”

The prime minister made a deep impression, both with his own people and globally, with his vow that Norway’s response to the bloodbath would be “more democracy, more openness and more humanity, but never naivety”. It was a message that Stoltenberg would repeat many times over the years.

In 2013, Stoltenberg’s red-green coalition was defeated in national elections by a centre-right coalition (although the Labour Party won the most seats of any individual party). That is despite some election gimmicks from Stoltenberg including videos of him becoming a taxi driver and discussing the state of the country with his fares. Stoltenberg became parliamentarian leader for the Labour Party and was later appointed a special envoy on climate change by the United Nations – another policy area that was close to his heart.

Then came the Nato job, which came as a surprise to many, including Stoltenberg’s wife, Ingrid. “I think if you had asked 30 or 40 years ago when we met whether he would become secretary-general of Nato, I think I would absolutely told you that is not possible ... life is unpredictable,” she said. He was Angela Merkel’s pick for the job and gained a reputation as a safe pair of hands. During the volatile US presidency of Donald Trump, when Nato funding was a constant issue, he was labelled by some as the “Trump whisperer”.

Stoltenberg will need all of that nous to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, having to walk a fine line that ensues this conflict does not become a full-blown world war. Stoltenberg has ruled out using troops in Ukraine, but will deploy extra forces to the borders of Nato nations. “Nato should not deploy forces on the ground or in the air space over Ukraine because we have a responsibility to ensure that this conflict, this war, doesn’t escalate beyond Ukraine,” he said on Wednesday.

It was announced earlier this announced earlier this year that Stoltenberg would become Norway’s next central bank governor – with his tenure as Nato secretary-general having been set to end later this year. However, at the extraordinary meeting of Nato members in Brussels on Thursday Stoltenberg’s mandate as secretary-general was extended for an an extra year.

Stoltenberg tweeted that he is "honored" by the decision of Nato leaders "to extend my term as secretary general until 30 September 2023.

"As we face the biggest security crisis in a generation, we stand united to keep our alliance strong and our people safe," he said.

As his wife Ingrid told the BBC earlier this year, what has happened throughout Stoltenberg’s life has given him “a lot of confidence in the fact that you can make a difference... change the world”.