УКРОПИ

Russian authorities systematically torture Ukrainian POWs, UN says

Geneva — Russian authorities have subjected hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war to “widespread and systematic torture” while supervisors in detention facilities aware of that treatment did nothing to stop the abuse, according to a report published by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“We have interviewed 174 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and this includes five medics since March of last year, and almost every single one provided credible and reliable and detailed accounts of torture and severe ill-treatment,” Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, told journalists in Geneva.

Speaking Tuesday via video link from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Bell said the POWs described “severe beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, dog bites, mock executions” and other threatening and degrading treatment.

She said 68% of the POWs reported that “sexual violence, torture and ill treatment occurs at all stages of captivity under appalling internment conditions” across multiple facilities in the occupied territory and the Russian Federation.

She said the routine nature of the abuse, which occurred on a daily or weekly basis and continued throughout the period of internment — sometimes as long as up to three years — “indicated knowledge of faculty supervisors.”

“When external officials of the Russian Federation visited internment sites, in many instances, the torture and ill treatment temporarily ceased and conditions improved, indicating that those responsible for these facilities were aware of the mistreatment,” she said.

“Russian public figures have openly called for the inhumane treatment and execution of Ukrainian POWs,” she said, adding that “these factors, combined with the adoption of broad amnesty laws for Russian service persons, have contributed to a climate of impunity.”

The United Nations report, which describes conditions of detention as poor, “with most POWs reporting food shortages, lack of medical care, overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions,” says 10 Ukrainian POWs have died due to “torture, lack of medical care and dire health conditions.”

Of the 205 Russian POWs interviewed since March 2023, the report says 104 were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by Ukrainian authorities “during the initial stages of their captivity,” including severe beatings, threats of death and physical violence.

“However, in nearly all cases, torture and ill-treatment stopped when prisoners arrived at official places of internment, where conditions appeared generally compliant with international standards,” it says.

Bell underlined differences in the scope and scale of the treatment meted out to Ukrainian and Russian POWs by their captors.

She observed that the torture or ill treatment of the Russian POWs by Ukrainian authorities takes place during their initial capture, in the early days.

She said these practices stop and the captives “are safe once they are inside the internment facilities,” whereas the abusive treatment of Ukrainian POWs in Russian detention centers “happens throughout the duration of their internment.”

Bell attributes the better treatment of Russian POWs in large part to the monitors having unrestricted access to Ukrainian sites where they are held, noting that U.N. officials are “able to carry out a very open dialogue with Ukrainian authorities on where to make improvements.”

She added, however, that the mission cannot look out for the welfare of Ukrainian POWs because it does not have access to them in the Russian Federation, “though we have been asking for access for a long time.”

Other human rights developments

Besides delving into the torture experienced by POWs since Russian armed forces’ full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the 30-page U.N. report also covers key human rights developments in the country from June 1 to August 31, 2024.

The report finds civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure have increased significantly during that period, noting that 589 civilians have been killed and 2,685 injured. That represents “a 45% increase in casualties on the previous three months” and brings the total number of civilians killed since the start of the war to 11,743, with 24,614 injuries.

“During the reporting period, Russian armed forces continued to target energy infrastructure across Ukraine, affecting essential services and deepening concerns about the plight of the civilian population with winter approaching,” Liz Throssel, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, said at the release of the report.

She also said intensive military attacks by Russian armed forces against cities across Ukraine such as Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia “have damaged and destroyed civilian property and infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and even a geriatric care home.”

“And we have documented even more attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” said Throssel.

Bell said the Russian Federation has launched nine waves of large-scale, coordinated attacks between March and August targeting Ukraine’s energy generation facilities, primarily thermal, hydroelectric and heating plants.

“The cascading damage from these attacks has affected essential services like electricity, water, heating, sewage and public education,” she said. “Vulnerable populations — for example, older persons, persons with disabilities, lower income households and children — have been disproportionately affected.

“Rolling blackouts are expected to resume this winter,” she said. “But let me emphasize, significant efforts are underway to restore Ukraine’s generation capacity and to mitigate the risks of a harsh winter. But this situation is exacerbated by ongoing attacks.”

The High Commissioner’s report will be submitted to the U.N. human rights council next week.
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OPEC+ unlikely to change output policy

LONDON/DUBAI — An OPEC+ panel is unlikely this week to recommend any changes to its current deal to reduce production and to start unwinding some cuts from December, despite recent sharp declines in oil prices, five sources from the producer group told Reuters.

Top ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, or OPEC+ as the group is known, will hold an online joint ministerial monitoring committee meeting on Wednesday.

“Although the oil market situation is a bit complicated, I do not expect a new decision or any change to the OPEC+ agreement in Wednesday’s meeting,” one of the sources said, declining to be identified.

Oil prices have fallen in 2024 with Brent crude last month slipping below $70 a barrel for the first time since 2021, pressured by concern about global demand and rising supply outside OPEC+. Brent was trading near $71 on Tuesday.

OPEC+ is currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5.7% of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since late 2022.

Its latest agreement calls for OPEC+ to raise output by 180,000 bpd in December, part of a plan to gradually unwind its most recent layer of voluntary cuts during 2025. The hike was delayed from October after prices slid.

Compliance by countries with cuts will also be in focus at the meeting and in coming weeks, particularly that of Iraq and Kazakhstan which have promised so called compensation cuts of 123,000 bpd in September and more in later months to make up for past over-production.

An OPEC+ source told Reuters last week that when it becomes clearer that the compensation cuts are being made in September, this will allow the December increase to go ahead as the net supply addition to the market will be minimal.

However, a lack of compliance could prompt Saudi Arabia and others to unwind their cuts faster from December, analysts said.

“If they fail to comply, we can envision a swifter sunsetting of the voluntary cuts,” Helima Croft of RBC Capital said in a report.

The JMMC, which groups the oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia and other leading producers, usually meets every two months and can make recommendations to change policy.
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Ukraine says Russian drone attack hurts 2 people in Odesa

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China’s coast guard enters Arctic for the first time for patrol with Russia

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Swiss glaciers are receding again after 2 punishing years

GENEVA — The volume of Switzerland’s glaciers shrank again this summer, compounding the negative impact of climate change after a devastating two-year run that depleted the ice by more than 10%, scientific experts reported Tuesday.

The cryosphere observation team at the Swiss Academy of Sciences reported that high temperatures in July and August, combined with the heat-absorbing impact of reddish-yellow dust blown northward from the Sahara Desert onto Swiss glaciers, led to a loss of 2.5% of their volume this year.

The shrinkage came despite “extremely favorable” conditions through June, the academy said, thanks to 30% more snowfall in the preceding winter compared to average levels, meaning that the glaciers had an extra layer of protective covering of snow — before temperatures rose.

“August saw the greatest loss of ice recorded since measurements began,” the academy said in a statement summarizing the findings.

“The retreat of the glacier tongues and their disintegration continue unabated as a result of climate change,” it said, adding that the 2.5% loss of volume was higher than the average levels over the last decade.

Experts at the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland network, known as GLAMOS, said that more than half of the glaciers it monitored completely lost their snow coverage throughout the summer.

Several topmost measurement points on glaciers, such as Plaine Morte and Gries in the south and Silvretta in the east, recorded melt rates of a meter or more, the network said in a report for the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

GLAMOS cited three factors: “very high” average air temperatures in July and August; good weather in those months in which there was no fresh snow; and southwesterly winds in the winter and spring that dumped the Saharan dust onto the Alps, causing a warming effect on the ice.

Switzerland is home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear last year. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022.
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British justice at Hong Kong’s top court declines to renew term

London  — Another overseas, nonpermanent judge at Hong Kong’s top court, 86-year-old Briton Nicholas Phillips, has chosen not to renew his term after it ended on Sept. 30, becoming the fifth foreign judge to step down from the Court of Final Appeal this year.

Phillips told VOA through his chamber, Brick Court Chambers, in an email Monday, “I have declined the invitation to serve for a further 3 year term on the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong for personal and not political reasons.”

According to the chamber, he would not comment further.

The Hong Kong Judiciary thanked him in a statement sent to online media The Witness for his contribution to the work of the Court of Final Appeal and his support for the rule of law in Hong Kong during his tenure over the past 12 years. It added that “the recent changes in court personnel will not affect the operation of the Court of Final Appeal.”

It went on to say despite the departure of the judges this year, the majority of serving and outgoing nonpermanent judges have publicly reaffirmed their continued confidence in Hong Kong’s independent judicial system and the courts’ commitment to upholding the rule of law.

The Court of Final Appeal is formed by the chief justice, three local permanent judges, and 10 nonpermanent judges. The nonpermanent judges include four local judges and six overseas judges.

Anthony Gleeson, an 85-year-old former chief justice from Australia, did not renew his term in March, citing his advanced age. Canadian judge Beverley McLachlin also said she would not renew her term after July because she was 80 and hoped to spend more time with family.

In June, two British judges, Lawrence Collins, 83, and Jonathan Sumption, 75, resigned from the court, saying it was because of the city’s worsening political situation and “profoundly compromised” rule of law.

Rights activists say Hong Kong’s government is using the foreign judges to lend credibility to its crackdown on rights and freedoms since Britain returned the financial hub to China in 1997.

The Washington-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation issued a report in May criticizing overseas judges in Hong Kong for undermining its freedoms and called for them to quit. The foundation said it was shocked that it took Phillips so long to quit despite a series of high-profile cases targeting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy groups, which prompted at least two judges to resign.

Alyssa Fong, public affairs and advocacy manager for CFHK Foundation, said the more foreign judges that resign, the less the Hong Kong government can use them to justify rights abuses.

“I urge Phillips’ fellow common law judges from the U.K. and Australia to immediately follow suit. It is dumbfounding that some judges continue to choose to ruin their reputations and their integrity for the Hong Kong authorities and Chinese Communist Party,” she told VOA.

After Phillips’ departure, six overseas judges remain in the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal — Leonard Hoffmann and David Neuberger from Britain and William Gummow, Robert French, Patrick Keane, and James Allsop from Australia.

Hoffmann, 90, has been a nonpermanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal since 1998, and his term will end in mid-January next year. Gummow’s term will expire next July, while the terms of the other three Australian judges will expire in 2026 or 2027.

At the end of June, Neuberger heard Hong Kong’s case accusing Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai of unauthorized assembly and agreed with the controversial verdict. Neuberger came under criticism, then resigned as chairman of an expert panel of the Media Freedom Coalition.

Kevin Yam, a Hong Kong activist-lawyer now based in Australia, pointed out on social media X that Phillips could have left office on the grounds of age, but he chose to use personal reasons, which he notes would invite some speculation.

“When even Phillips does this, the four remaining Australian judges on the HKCFA stick out even more like sore thumbs,” Yam said on X.

The Hong Kong government awarded Phillips the Gold Bauhinia Star in July last year and described him as “a strong supporter of the rule of law in Hong Kong and very much a friend of Hong Kong.”

Beijing agreed to uphold Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” political structure when colonial ruler Britain transferred the city back to China in 1997.

Critics say Beijing has violated that deal by forcing harsh security laws on Hong Kong that have seen independent media shut down or leave the city and dissidents face arrest or flee abroad.

Beijing says Hong Kong’s 2020 National Security Law was needed to maintain stability after a series of pro-democracy protests in the past decade, but has used it to arrest, jail and try hundreds of activists, stifling Hong Kong’s once vibrant civil society.

In March, Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously and quickly approved their own sweeping national security law known as Basic Law Article 23, strengthening the government’s ability to silence dissent.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Dispute over Spain’s past domination of Mexico reveals domestic divisions

Madrid — Among those not present at Tuesday’s inauguration of Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was the Spanish monarch. 

Sheinbaum did not invite King Felipe VI of Spain to the ceremony after the monarch did not respond to a letter demanding that he apologize for Spain’s 16th century defeat of Mexico’s powerful Aztec rulers. 

Today, a diplomatic dispute between Mexico and Spain over the event half a millennium ago is motivated more by domestic political tensions in both countries, analysts said. 

The issue of Spain’s colonial past has also revealed political splits within Spain’s own left-wing coalition government, observers noted. 

In 2019, Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador, who is known as AMLO and is an ally of Sheinbaum, wrote to King Felipe and Pope Francis to ask them to apologize for the abuses during and after the 1519-1521 conquest. 

Sheinbaum said that when King Felipe failed to respond, he was not invited to the ceremony, Reuters reported. 

The snub to King Felipe prompted the Spanish government to say it would not participate “at any level.” 

During a visit to New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly, Reuters reported that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ruled out participating in Tuesday’s ceremony in Mexico City. 

“Spain and Mexico are brotherly peoples. We cannot therefore accept being excluded like this,” he said. 

“That’s why we have made it known to the Mexican government that there will be no diplomatic representative from the Spanish government, as a sign of protest.” 

Historic wounds 

Historians agree that Spain’s conquest of Mexico was marked by violence. 

However, accounts from that time, including The True History of the Conquest of Mexico by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, counter claims of cruelty while also being critical of the campaign by Hernan Cortes. 

Spain’s government has rejected Mexico’s demand for an apology for the conquest, saying the events of the past cannot be judged by the standards of today. 

Observers suggest that Sheinbaum’s decision not to invite the Spanish king was motivated by a current of anti-Spanish thought she shares with AMLO. 

Commentators said both Mexican leaders have sought to appropriate a version of history which blames the Spanish conquest for ills which afflict modern Mexico.  

Jos Maria Ortega, a Mexico-based analyst who has co-written The Dispute of the Past: Spain, Mexico, and the Black Legend, said: “AMLO and Sheinbaum share the idyllic view that Mexico had existed for thousands of years when this was not the case. 

Mexico as it exists today won independence from Spain in 1821 after a war that spanned 11 years. 

“AMLO will blame corruption, which is a problem for Mexico, on the time of conquest. This plays well with some Mexicans who are anti-Spanish but not those who are pro-Spanish,” Ortega told VOA. 

Analysts suggest Mexico’s first female president was interested in provoking a diplomatic row with Spain for domestic political gain. 

Tomas Perez Vejo, a professor at the National School for Anthropology and History in Mexico, said Sheinbaum sought to exploit anti-Spanish feelings among supporters. 

“Sheinbaum is a supporter of what is known in America as woke, or the politically correct, and defends the Indigenous people. There is also a populist element in which Spain is seen as the enemy by [Mexican] nationalists,” he told VOA. 

“Relations between Mexico and Spain have been complicated since AMLO came to power in 2018. But this relationship is too important in terms of trade, tourism, which have carried on as if nothing happened despite the political ill feelings,” he said. “This latest row is not going to cause lasting damage.” 

European roots 

Both Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum are descendants of more recent immigrants from Europe. AMLO’s maternal grandfather was born in Spain and Sheinbaum’s grandparents were Jews from Lithuania and Bulgaria. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, the dispute has revealed divisions within Spain’s minority coalition government. 

The Socialist-led government will not attend the inauguration but representatives of Sumar, the far-left Spanish party, which is the junior partner in Spain’s coalition, have accepted an invitation to travel to Mexico. 

“Sumar is more about examining the context of history. But the Socialists do not want to do that. The polarization between parties is seen over the colonization of America,” Oriol Bartomeus, a professor of politics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told VOA. 

Some historians argue that Mexico, for three centuries known as New Spain, was not formally a colony, but an overseas territory of Spain and that its inhabitants held full rights as subjects of the Spanish crown.  

That argument has not dampened the drive by some Spanish politicians to call for atonement for the nation’s imperial past. 

Ernest Urtasun, the minister of culture who is a member of Sumar, this year announced museums would review their collections to “overcome a colonial framework,” El Pais reported. Mexico and other nations formerly dominated by Spain have demanded the return of pre-Hispanic artifacts currently owned by museums in Europe. 

Ana Maria Carmona, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Seville, noted that divisions over the conquest of Mexico between the Socialists and Sumar were the latest in a series of tensions in the government. 

The two parties fell out over laws on sexual protection, animal rights and housing, she said.
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Europe hardens cease-fire calls as October 7 anniversary of Hamas attack nears

London — As the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel approaches, many European countries are strengthening their calls for Israel to end its assault on Hamas targets in Gaza amid growing horror at the civilian death toll.  

The militant attack killed 1,200 people, including Israelis and people of several other nationalities. Around 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas. The assault prompted outrage from Israel’s allies in Europe.

“This Hamas attack is terrible, and it is barbaric. In these dark hours for the Jewish state, we … stand firmly by Israel’s side,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the hours following the attack.

Then-British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak echoed those words of support.

“I want to express my absolute solidarity for the people of Israel. Now is not a time for equivocation, and I’m unequivocal,” Sunak said on the day following the attack. Israel’s Western allies, most prominently the United States, said the country had the right to defend itself.

Israel responded with waves of airstrikes on Hamas targets and a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel officials defended targeting schools and hospitals in Gaza, saying Hamas fighters were using them as bases and to store weapons.  

‘Miscalculation’

But soon, Western concern grew over the mounting civilian death toll, which reached 22,000 by the end of 2023, and has since climbed to over 41,000.

“I think there was a miscalculation on behalf of most Western governments — that they went all in in support for Israel early on, making it very, very difficult to find some sort of off-ramp to also tell Israel when it was wrong, when it acted excessively,” said Andreas Krieg, a Middle East analyst at Kings College London.

“As this became clearer in late 2023 and early 2024, most Western governments found it very hard to backtrack from the initial unequivocal support that they gave to Israel.”

There was also global concern over the lack of aid reaching Gaza amid the devastation.

South Africa brought an ongoing case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, supported, among others, by Spain, Ireland and Belgium. An interim ruling by the court ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel insisted it operates according to international law.

Negotiations to secure a truce, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have so far failed.  

“Europeans don’t have the leverage that the U.S. has to actually do anything about it apart from, obviously, potentially a diplomatic statement or trying to sponsor diplomatic efforts. But if there was no coercion exercised on the Netanyahu government, nothing was going to change,” Krieg said.

In Britain, a change of government in July brought a change of approach to Israel.  Newly elected Labour leader Keir Starmer dropped the previous government’s plan to challenge an arrest warrant requested by the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. In September, Britain announced it was suspending some arms sales to Israel.  

‘No contest’

Bronwen Maddox, director of London-based Chatham House, said the changing British approach was felt in Israel.

“There’s no question that some of these moves, for example, Britain taking more steps to express its disapproval of aspects of what Israel is doing — those are stinging in Israel. I heard a lot — I was there just really just days ago — a lot of people saying, ‘Well, if it’s a competition between security and international support, we’ll take security anytime. There’s no contest,’” Maddox told Agence France-Presse.

Germany, Israel’s second-biggest arms supplier after the United States, has been among the strongest of Israel’s allies in Europe.

“I would say the messages coming out of Germany up till now are probably the most pro-Israel of any major country in the world, even in comparison to the United States,” Krieg told VOA.

However, Berlin has also suspended several arms exports licenses to Israel in recent months.

“That’s likely not because there’s a change of policy,” Krieg said. “I think the German government is still unequivocally standing with Israel. But there is a concern over legal action being taken against the German government in Germany by lawyers who are saying Germany is no longer compliant with international law, by being complicit in this war,” he added.

After facing missile attacks from Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, Israel has widened its military operations in recent days, launching air strikes against both militant groups and a limited ground invasion across the Lebanese border. The United Nations says over 1 million people in Lebanon have been forced to flee the fighting.

European nations offered Israel unequivocal support in the wake of October 7. After a year of brutal, escalating conflict, most are demanding an end to the fighting.
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NATO’s new chief makes Ukraine support a top priority, says he’ll work with any US president

Brussels — The new head of NATO vowed on Tuesday to help shore up Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine and expressed confidence that he can work with whoever is elected president of the United States, the alliance’s most powerful member, in November.

“There can be no lasting security in Europe without a strong, independent Ukraine,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in his first speech on taking office, and he affirmed a commitment made by the organization’s leaders in 2008 that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are making advances in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s army has a shaky hold on part of the Kursk region in Russia, which has provided a temporary morale boost, but as casualties mount it remains outmanned and outgunned.

“The cost of supporting Ukraine is far, far lower than the cost we would face if we allow Putin to get his way,” Rutte told reporters, a few hours after his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg handed the reins to him, along with a Viking gavel with which to chair future meetings.

But Ukraine’s NATO membership remains a distant prospect. Several member countries, led by the U.S. and Germany, believe that Ukraine should not join while it’s fighting a war. Rutte declined to speculate about what must happen before it can stand among NATO’s ranks.

Rutte did single out China, and particularly Beijing’s support for Putin. “China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine. China cannot continue to fuel the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War without this impacting its interests and reputation,” he said.

NATO’s new top civilian official also underlined the importance of keeping the trans-Atlantic bond between the United States, Canada and Europe strong, with U.S. elections just a month away.

Surveys suggest the election will be a close race. It could see the return of Donald Trump, whose bluster during his last term of office about low defense spending among European allies and Canada undermined the trust of NATO member countries.

It became an existential challenge, as smaller members feared that the U.S. under Trump would renege on NATO’s security pledge that all countries must come to the rescue of any ally in trouble, the foundation stone the alliance is built on.

But Rutte said: “I know both candidates very well.” He praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more and for toughening their approach toward China. He also hailed the “fantastic record” of Vice President Kamala Harris and described her as “a highly respected leader.”

“I will be able to work with both. Whatever is the outcome of the election,” Rutte said. When pressed about Trump’s commitment to the other allies, he deflected, saying only that both candidates “understand that, in the end, the trans-Atlantic relationship is crucial, not just for Europe.”

Asked whether the Netherlands, which has only just reached NATO’s spending of 2% of gross domestic product on its defense budget, has set a good example to other allies, Rutte shook his head and said “No. We should have done this earlier.”

Earlier, Stoltenberg had welcomed Rutte to NATO headquarters in Brussels for the change of leadership.

The two men, who first sat together at NATO’s table 14 years ago as the leaders of Norway and the Netherlands, greeted each other warmly, before laying a wreath to fallen military personnel, surrounded by the flags of the 32 member countries.

“Mark has the perfect background to become a great secretary general,” a visibly emotional Stoltenberg said as he ended a decade in office.

“He has served as prime minister for 14 years and led four different coalition governments, so therefore he knows how to make compromises, create consensus, and these are skills which are very much valued here at NATO,” Stoltenberg said.

Rutte said that he “cannot wait to get to work.” Among his other priorities, he said, are to increase defense spending and strengthen partnerships that the alliance has established with other countries around the world, notably in Asia and the Middle East.

After hundreds of NATO staffers applauded the two men as they moved inside to the great hall where North Atlantic Council meetings are held at the level of ambassadors, ministers or leaders, Stoltenberg helped his successor to get started by presenting him with a Viking gavel to use when chairing meetings.

Stoltenberg, NATO’s 13th secretary-general, took over in 2014, the year that “little green men” from Russia infiltrated Ukraine. Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula, sparking a defense spending buildup at the world’s biggest security alliance that gathered pace over his term.

His tenure was surpassed only by Dutch diplomat Joseph Luns, who spent 12 years in charge of NATO.

NATO secretaries-general run the HQ, drive the alliance’s working agenda and speak on behalf of the 32-nation organization with one unifying voice. Continuity is usually the key word when they take up office.
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