President Klaus Iohannis, to be honored by Atlantic Council at ceremony in Washington, May 8

The Atlantic Council will honor this year Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis with the Distinguished International Leadership Award for his remarkable career, exemplary leadership of Romania, and his transatlantic and European leadership role, reads a press release published on the institution's website.

The 2024 Atlantic Council Distinguished Leadership Awards, referred to by media as "the Washington Oscars", will take place at a star-studded dinner at the Waldorf Astoria on May 8 in Washington, DC. Stephen J. Hadley, chairman of the Atlantic Council's International Advisory Board and former US national security advisor, will introduce President Iohannis and present the award.

Alongside the Romanian president, other honorees are U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo, General Christopher G. Cavoli, supreme allied commander Europe (SACEUR) and commander of US European Command, and Michelle Yeoh, Academy Award-winning actress and producer, United Nations Development Programme goodwill ambassador and member of the International Olympic Committee.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo will be recognized for her remarkable public service as the fortieth U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the seventy-fifth, and first female, governor of Rhode Island, as well as for her private sector accomplishments, General Christopher G. Cavoli will receive the Distinguished Military Leadership Award in recognition of his more than thirty-five-year career in the US Army, serving in a wide variety of positions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The Atlantic Council will acknowledge Michelle Yeoh's award-winning talent and historic accomplishment as the first Asian person to win the award for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, as well as her commitment to advocacy as a United Nations Development Programme goodwill ambassador and as a member of the International Olympic Committee.

"The recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Leadership Awards are remarkable and remarkably diverse representatives of global leaders who, through their lifetime of commitment and contributions, have contributed to a better world," said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, as cited on the institution's website. "By honoring them, we hope to inspire others to step up at a moment when the world so urgently needs distinguished leaders," he added.

Each year, the Distinguished Leadership Awards convenes a high-level international audience of more than six hundred policy, business, military, artistic, and civil-society leaders to celebrate individuals, including policy leaders, business executives, military brass, and artistic and humanitarian champions who best represent the pillars of the global relationship.

Past recipients include US presidents George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and then-Vice President Joe Biden; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; current and former International Monetary Fund managing directors Kristalina Georgieva and Christine Lagarde; World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg; and illustrious artists including Dua Lipa, Lionel Richie, Bono, Gloria Estefan, and Renée Fleming.

The Atlantic Council, created in 1961, is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose employees are expected to maintain high standards of personal and professional integrity, openness and honesty in their communications and dealings with each other, other organizations, government officials, the media and the public. Since 1996, the Council has recognized outstanding international leaders through its annual awards gala.