Finland’s President Alexander Stubb Talks NATO Stockpile

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

**Danny** (0:12)
Let's head to Ankara, where NATO leaders are gathering for this week's summit. Bloomberg Chief Political Correspondent and Surveillance Co-host Annmarie Hordern is there with Finland's president, Annmarie.

**Annmarie Hordern** (0:22)
Thank you so much, Danny. That's right. Fresh off his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the host of the summit, President Erdogan, I am joined by the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, also known in the American press as the Trump Whisperer. Thank you so much for joining us here.

**Alexander Stubb** (0:38)
My pleasure.

**Annmarie Hordern** (0:39)
So give us a sense of what this meeting you just came from with President Zelensky was like, especially given the fact that he is saying the next battle is going to be in the skies and he doesn't have enough defense systems.

**Alexander Stubb** (0:48)
Yeah, I think there are two elements to it. The first one is that he is doing quite well in terms of long distance strikes, both drones and missiles. We are seeing Russian oil refineries being hit and 40 percent of their refining capacity going down. But the other part of it is the way in which Ukraine defends itself. And there he is absolutely right. He needs more air defense. He needs more patriots. Because we are seeing over 100 civilian buildings being hit just the other night with civilians dying. So this is something that we Europeans and Americans need to work on.

**Annmarie Hordern** (1:23)
Those long range drone strikes, do you think that's making Russia more emboldened? Or is it maybe, do you think, going to push them to a negotiating table?

**Alexander Stubb** (1:31)
Well, I think our assessment in Finland as Russia's neighbor is to understand that economic disparity won't end this war.
The situation on the battlefield, in other words, the losses of Russian soldiers, 35,000 a month, is not going to end this war. But the strategic thinking of the Russian regime will change if the Russian population begins to be against the war. And that's what's happening right now. And the reasons are many. It's actually coming too close to home, hitting St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Crimean Peninsula, so it's hitting kids, basically not hitting, but affecting children's summers. It's, you know, they're closing internet. They have long lines at the gas pump. So these kinds of things will probably make Russia reconsider and hopefully get them to the negotiating table.

**Annmarie Hordern** (2:19)
You are regarded as one of the closest European leaders to President Trump, a golfing buddy sometimes with him. What would your advice to Zelensky be on how to approach the United States with these requests?

**Alexander Stubb** (2:31)
Well, I think President Zelensky and President Trump are having a really good dialogue right now.
And of course, things went off track because of Iran for a while, but now that we are back on track And we see the rhetoric in the meetings they had at the G7 meeting, the phone calls that they've had before this NATO summit around the 4th of July. I think we're going in the right direction. And I think there is a fundamental understanding of the American administration that Ukraine is right now on top, and it's always easier to back a winner than a loser.

**Annmarie Hordern** (3:05)
Do you think at some point this has been a talk for months, maybe even years, that the US would allow Ukraine to just produce patriot missiles in country?

**Alexander Stubb** (3:14)
That would be very useful, because what we see...

**Annmarie Hordern** (3:16)
Are we close?

**Alexander Stubb** (3:17)
I hope so, because we have to understand that Ukraine needs NATO, but NATO needs Ukraine as much as the other way around. Because we're seeing their defense industry capacity.
Thank you. I think it would be a good thing for civilians, and it would be a good thing also in terms of it being more cost effective.

**Annmarie Hordern** (3:46)
The president's also frustrated with Iran, which is gonna be another big topic today, especially given the fact that a Qatari vessel was hit. And of course, they're a mediator in this entire conflict. Is there an inability from Europe, because they don't have the hardware to help the United States when it comes to trade of Hormuz, or there's not a political will to want to do that?

**Alexander Stubb** (4:06)
There's definitely a political will. We've been on the side of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open from the beginning.
Our country, Finland, was involved in a declaration and in the planning of it. And I think the French and the Brits are now talking, for instance, about demining in Oman. So we have a lot of the capabilities to do it. And of course, on top of that, a lot of the European air bases and military bases were used to service and feed about 45,000 American soldiers.