Stubb revealed his message to Trump: “This is pretty easy”

President of the Republic Alexander Stubb said in Ankara that he does not have an arranged one-on-one meeting with the US president Donald Trump’s with. However, he believes that there are opportunities for spontaneous meetings at the summit.

According to the President of the Republic, his message to Trump is that a more European NATO is now being built.

“At the moment we are building a new NATO, a more European NATO, where the Europeans take more responsibility for their own defense and security. For Finns, this message is quite easy, because we have done this since the Cold War perhaps more than many others, so we have things going well, so to speak, and there is no need to explain it to Trump or anyone else,” said Stubb.

Stubb emphasized that this is not being done for the sake of the United States, but for the own security of NATO allies.

“Because our biggest security threat is still Russia.”

The President of the Republic answered questions from the Finnish media before US President Trump had held his own short press conference.

In Ankara, Trump repeated his demand that the United States should take over Greenland, which belongs to Denmark. He referred, among other things, to the fact that China and Russia are present in the Arctic region.

“Greenland should be controlled by the US, not Denmark. It didn’t work out for them, even though we spend so much money helping them with Russia. We wouldn’t have to waste anything, we could pull all our troops out of Europe,” Trump threatened.

Trump was also asked if he is satisfied with the progress of NATO countries’ defense spending.

“We’ll see. I was very disappointed with NATO,” Trump said.

Trump has on several occasions demanded help from NATO countries in, for example, traffic control in the Strait of Hormuz and said that he was disappointed by the reluctance of European NATO countries to help the United States.

NATO contingency plan

Stubb was also asked what is NATO’s backup plan for the fact that Trump is not satisfied with the actions of NATO countries.

According to Stubb, in matters, you should focus on what is being done. This can be seen, for example, in the defense industry forum and in the final document of the meeting.

“At the moment, we clearly see a shift of the burden from the United States to Europe specifically on the conventional side, and of course it may be that different rhetoric will be cultivated, but with a calm mind,” Stubb stated.

Also the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi attends the NATO summit and meets Stubb.

According to Stubb, the goal is still to get a cease-fire in Ukraine first, which is unconditional. Peace negotiations would only begin after that.

“Then we’ll have pretty precise messages about how we’re trying to promote peace plans here with different allies. And then we’ll see how all of this can be coordinated.”

According to Stubb, Russia is not necessarily ready to the negotiating table due to economic reasons or losses – but it may be ready to the negotiating table if Russian public opinion turns against the war.

“Probably that is the goal that Zelensky has had at the top of his mind in the last few months.”

According to Stubb, in order to put pressure on Russia, Ukraine must be supported politically, economically and militarily, and at the same time increase pressure in Russia’s direction.

“But it must be said that at the moment the greatest pressure towards Russia comes specifically from Ukraine. And from the capacity of Ukraine’s defense industry for, for example, long-range attacks on St. Petersburg, Crimea or Moscow.”

Stubb also hoped that in Ankara there would be a continuation of the messages that were seen at the G7 meeting held in June. At that time, the leading industrialized countries strongly supported Ukraine and promised to strengthen its air defense.

Story edited at 16:52. Added information that Trump again demanded Greenland for the United States in Ankara.