Helga Schmidt and Jens Stoltenberg dual leadership will lead the Munich Security Conference in the future

The impasse at the top of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) is over: former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and former OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmidt will be the new heads of the meeting. The board of trustees decided unanimously, the MSC announced in Munich.

The two future co-chairs should take over the tasks of long-time chairman Wolfgang Ischinger in time for the 63rd Munich Security Conference in February 2027 and then lead the conference on an equal basis, it said.

Both are proven transatlanticians and have not only led large international organizations in their long careers, but have also personally been involved in many important decisions of the past decades. Ischinger said that after almost 20 years at the helm of the MSC, he looks forward to continuing to support it as an active member of its board of trustees.

Stoltenberg was actually supposed to lead the MSC for the first time this year. Stoltenberg had already been announced as Christoph Heusgen's successor, chairman until 2025, but withdrew the promise at short notice. Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had asked him to take over the position of Finance Minister in his cabinet.

Instead, Wolfgang Ischinger chaired the security conference this year. His “good friend Jens Stoltenberg” will only serve as the next chairman “if he believes he can actually do that,” Ischinger said at the time.

The Munich Security Conference is considered the world's most important meeting of experts on security policy. Numerous heads of state and government regularly take part. The next edition is planned for the period from February 12th to 14th, 2027.