Romanian president announces NATO chief bid

BUCHAREST -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced his decision on Tuesday to run for the position of Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"I am taking on this candidacy on behalf of Romania," Iohannis said at the Cotroceni Palace, the Presidential Administration's head office.

He emphasized that "it is time for our country to assume even greater responsibility within the Euro-Atlantic leadership structures."

Romania is one of the allied states allocating 2.5 percent of their gross domestic product for defense, he said.

Born in 1959, Iohannis studied physics at the University of Bucharest before entering politics in the early 2000s. He became Romania's president in 2014 and was re-elected in 2019.