Comments by "" (@martavdz4972) on "The race to select Nato's next secretary-general | Defence in Depth" video.

Except personal charisma doesn't matter at all. There must be a reason everyone is begging Stoltenberg to stay. He's actually tough because he suffers from a painful chronic disease, yet works 100% and never lets it show. He seemed rattled but he made very rational, calm decisions when Russia invaded Ukraine. He was the reason I calmed down for the first time after the invasion happened (my country is close to Ukraine). I was surprised when I learned he's a politician and not an experienced general.
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@tylerclayton6081 Poland was never part of the Soviet Union. And it wasn't in 1991, it was in 1990. And don't call Poles "Eastern European". They hate that.
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I understood that they might be viewed as such, when pointing out the contrast that nobody from Italy or Poland has been secretary general for a long time (or, ever). But yeah, it's not correct.
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@jank6340 To be precise, it was a Polish-Lithuanian federation (Lithuania was the bigger founding member initially), and it only included parts of Latvia (northern Latvia belonged to Sweden at that time). But yeah, I agree. The Baltic states have struck me as the most realistic in the past years.
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Yeah, would absolutely recommend our Slovak brothers' choice 🙂
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And it would be nothing short of insulting to call Estonians "Eastern European". Estonia mostly belonged to German aristocracy and Scandinavian countries throughout its history. The cultural ties to Eastern European countries like Russia and Belarus are minimal compared with cultural ties with Finland, Germany, Denmark and Latvia. It's a Lutheran world, not a Russian Orthodox one.
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Agreed. He's good.
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That would be useful if we were preparing for WW3. But we aren't.
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@Nils.Minimalist Gotta love this about Germans 😂 We Czechs are more like "Hope it's a Czech guy, he'd just invite everyone for a beer and everything would be solved" LOL Yeah, it's probably better if it's not Germany (or Czechia 😂 ) . I would entrust Germans with technology and visions for the future in any organization, though. I also believe Lithuanian experts when they say Germany will definitely be the one country with most patience and stamina.
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@MyDagfinn Thanks for the info! I wonder if one of the factors in his decision will be how much his ankylosing spondylitis has progressed and what doctors will recommend. Seems to me his joints have been aching a bit more lately. It's an autoimmune disease and stress makes it worse.
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