Alexander Stubb

And sort of at the end of the tunnel, I wish we could have a NATO summit in Ankara where we all agree on a new Arctic security structure.

I come from an Arctic country.

I come from a country which has one of the biggest militaries in Europe.

I come from a country which has the best know-how in Arctic defense.

So these are the types of things that we need to work with the alliance, including the United States.

There's a short-term scenario here and there's a long-term.

Short-term is to basically de-escalate the language.

And I hope we'll see some of that here in Davos here today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.

And then the second one is a long-term strategic thinking on, okay, is this an issue of sovereignty or is it an issue of security?

I hope that it is an issue of security.

And then we start looking at how we can beef up security in the Arctic region

Now, the latest conversations that I've had about this subject in the past two to three hours, this is how fast things are changing in the new foreign policy world, gives me a little bit of hope that we'll find a way.

Well, first of all, the President of the United States has a capacity to deal with a multiplicity of issues at the same time.

I mean, you only look at what's happened this year.

Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Gaza, the Peace Board, and many other things at the same time.

And of course,

add on to that domestic issues.

On the NATO issue, if someone would have told me at the 75th anniversary of NATO in Washington, D.C., in 2024, I think it was, that we are looking at increasing our defense expenditure to 5% next year, I would say, please go and see a doctor or consult the Foreign Affairs Magazine, because this is not going to happen.

Now, if at the end of the day after this, what could be called rhetorical escalation, we come up with a stronger Arctic security, then that is good.

And obviously, we are seeing foreign policy done in a slightly different way from what we're used to.