NATO Secretary-General
Oana Lungescu, herself the longest-serving NATO spokesperson, emphasized that "it's really important a choice is made early enough and that it is delinked from both the European Union elections [in June 2024] and the campaign for the United States elections." Lungescu, now a distinguished fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the UK, warned that "the worst thing that could happen would be the secretary-general of NATO being a sort of 'leftover' from late-night negotiations over the EU table or getting caught up in a very messy United States election."