NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Joanna has informed the organization’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that he is resigning from his post on September 10, Agerpress reports, referring to NATO’s official website.
Stoltenberg accepted Joanna’s resignation and thanked him for his work.
“Mirca served in NATO for almost five years. Its focus on technology and emerging security challenges is key to driving innovation in the Alliance. He is a true transatlantic and his work with partners is of great benefit to NATO. I wish him all the best in the future,” Stoltenberg said.
The site notes that Joana is the first Romanian to hold the post of Deputy Secretary General of NATO.
Boris Ruge, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, will take over until a new Deputy Secretary General is appointed.
“To be in the leadership of NATO has been the highest honor of my life. I thank Secretary General Stoltenberg for his trust and friendship. Together over the past five years we have gone through a number of difficult moments, but we have also shared many successes together with our remarkable team,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page Mircea Joana.
“As I move on to a new stage, I look back with pride on the unforgettable time spent in the service of the most important Alliance in history,” emphasized Joanna.
“Adeverul” newspaper notes that it is expected that after Joana’s resignation from NATO on September 10, he will announce his candidacy for the presidency of Romania.
The newspaper reminds that Mircea Joanna is leaving the post a month before the end of his mandate. He was appointed Deputy Secretary General of NATO in October 2019.
Not long ago, he stated on the occasion of a possible candidacy for the presidential elections that his personal decision has already been made, but he has to wait a few more days. “I will announce the decision the moment I finish my mandate in NATO,” he told Digi 24 television.
Mircea Joana will enter the presidential race as an independent candidate, “Adeverul” notes. He is expected to propose his program for the country to present at the national level.
Joanna needs to collect 200,000 signatures if she wants to run as an independent in the presidential elections at the end of the year, the publication also states.
Mircea Joanna, who is a former leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), former president of the Senate and former foreign minister, is the favorite in the race for the presidency according to a number of polls, although the most recent give the lead to Prime Minister and SDP candidate Marcel Cholaku.
Joanna was also a presidential candidate in the 2009 election, when she lost to the center-right candidate Traian Basescu.
The first round of the presidential elections in Romania will be on November 24, and the second – on December 8.
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