Swedish Prime Minster Ulf Kristersson Talks Ukraine/Russia War

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
So, here's the latest this morning, NATO allies revealing $12 billion in defense industry deals looking to prove to the US that Europe is meeting spending demands. With the latest on the ground in Ankara, Oliver Crook has more. Hey, Ollie.

**Oliver Crook** (0:14)
Yeah, that's right, Jonathan. Just as President Trump has arrived here on the tarmac in Turkey, preparing for those meetings of 32 leaders of those NATO allies, we're very pleased to be joined by one of them, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson. Thank you so much for speaking to us here on the sidelines of the NATO Summit. As we've just been saying, President Trump has just landed here in Turkey. What is the message from the European arm of NATO to the President of the United States?

**Ulf Kristersson** (0:37)
Well, the basic message, I believe and I hope, is to confirm what we decided last year.
That we are all committed to an increase in European defense investments, that there's burden shifting in an orderly way, but very decisive way, that we can prove that decisions have been made already and we see good results from it. That's one. Another, I hope, is to confirm our commitment to Ukraine. Ukraine is not losing this war, but they still need our help to be able to win a decent peace. And of course, what we're discussing today, is how to increase the, not least the, European capabilities of having a big, a good defense industrial base, which we have proven quite significantly here today.

**Oliver Crook** (1:27)
And of course, there are things that can go wrong in these meetings, as they often, they sometimes do.
And one of the things that has been highlighted by the US administration is that not everybody is necessarily moving at the same pace in terms of that burden sharing. The United States has indicated that potentially you could get a tiered system within NATO of rewards and consequences for those that don't. Do you agree with that in terms of a sort of method to put pressure for NATO allies to reach those targets?

**Ulf Kristersson** (1:52)
I think everybody expects a quite thorough assessment of how well we have achieved what we decided last year. And there are no secrets behind, you know, between NATO members. So I think there would be tough discussions on that. But that's the name of the game. Still, I think that Mark Rutte, the Secretary General's basic message is that we are stepping up, we are doing it decisively, and Europe is, and Canada, we are taking a bigger share of the overall responsibility, which we should.

**Oliver Crook** (2:29)
And of course, one of the issues that the President of the United States has demonstrated some dissatisfaction with was NATO's role in any sort of way on the conflict in Iran. We now have had this news crossing that a tanker has been hit, a Qatari tanker, that obviously has great consequences for the Europeans. Do you believe that the Europeans should be playing a role at this stage here? Is this a conversation that will be fleshed out for the President of the United States?

**Ulf Kristersson** (2:51)
I'm not that sure that that will be a discussion having here, but we obviously had it for the last months, and Sweden is among the many European countries that we are willing and able to do efforts to safeguard freedom of navigation after a reasonable ceasefire has been reached, and we are committed to that.

**Oliver Crook** (3:15)
Can you say a little bit more about what those things could include? And how, you know, because obviously we're in a ceasefire now, it's not exactly at peace. At what stage do you think the Europeans would be willing to engage?

**Ulf Kristersson** (3:24)
Well, that is an ongoing discussion between different European partners, so I cannot be too precise on that. But we have different capabilities that could be well used in that region. And of course, for all European countries, freedom of navigation is an extremely important virtue in itself. So we fully acknowledge that we also have a responsibility to that.

**Oliver Crook** (3:50)
And of course, as you mentioned, the conflict in Ukraine is still top of the agenda for the Europeans. Volodymyr Zelensky will be speaking with President Trump, trying to bring that up the agenda for the President of the United States. There is a real sense that there is a momentum shift on the battlefield, striking deep within Russia, the sense that Putin may be a little bit more on the ropes, particularly economically. Given that opportunity, what is it appropriate for Europe to do to try to escalate that pressure and try to help?