The US leader and the president of the European Commission have built a “strong bond” in recent years, sources say
US President Joe Biden’s preferred choice for the next secretary general of NATO is European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to The Telegraph newspaper.
Biden and von der Leyen have built “a strong bond” in the past few years over issues such as China, Ukraine and climate change, the British outlet reported on Tuesday, citing NATO sources.
According to one of the paper’s interlocutors, the White House appreciated that the European Commission president recently preferred to “rely on Washington for intelligence” instead of trusting European agencies, which had failed to properly evaluate Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
The report also suggested that von der Leyen would likely be able to get the backing of France’s Emmanuel Macron, another key player in NATO, due to her fluency in the French…
