Sir, it's good to have you
with as Moscow
is accused NATO of threatening
and I quote security
a national interest
by officially
welcoming Finland into the fold.
The Kremlin spokesperson
said the move will force Moscow
and again
I quote here,
take countermeasures
to ensure our own security
both tactically and strategicall
So I'll put tonight's question t
How do you expect Moscow to resp
Well, what we have seen is that
Moscow President Putin has tried
and deny sovereign
independent nations
in Europe
to make their own choices,
to choose from a path
that was actually declared
purpose
of the invasion of Ukraine
was to prevent Ukraine
from becoming a member.
But also
it also declared a policy
from President Putin
that he wanted Finland and Swede
never become members of NATO to
NATO's door.
He's getting
the exact opposite
is getting more NATO's
in the eastern part of the allia
and it's getting more NATO membe
Finland and and Sweden.
And that's the way
free democratic nations are acti
when an authoritarian power
like Russia tries to control
what neighbors can do
and try
to reestablish a sphere of influ
In the past hour or so,
Vladimir Putin has said,
and I quote him here,
the European Union
has initiated
a geopolitical confrontation wit
Your response?
This is not a confrontation,
neither from the EU nor from NAT
NATO's a defensive alliance.
Neato.
And Finland
has never been and will never be
to Russia.
It is Russia that has invaded ne
Georgia in 2008
Ukraine and Crimea in 2014
and then a full fledged nation l
And that's the reason
why countries in Europe,
like Finland, Sweden, decide
that they want to be part of NAT
And and
Finland
joining in NATO means that
Finland is getting safer
and NATO is getting stronger.
And we demonstrate that
NATO's door is open.
It's not for Russia to decide
who can be a NATO member.
It's for
independent cratic nations to de
Sweden also looking for membersh
The Turkish foreign minister was
at the ceremony yesterday.
In fact, he was standing right b
as you welcomed Finland into the
You have urged Turkey and Hungar
to let Sweden
join, and I quote you without de
Canada's foreign minister also
with you in Brussels last hour,
telling me she is confident
in your leadership to get this d
Are you confident
that you will get this done?
I'm confident that Sweden
will become a member,
not least because all night alli
Also Turkey
invited Sweden to become a membe
at our summit last year in Madri
And Sweden also fulfills the cri
the demands that that that was a
in in connection with the Madrid
and the trilateral agreement
between Finland, Sweden and and
And then, of
course, I also strongly believe
Turkey has some legitimate
security concerns.
No other ally has
suffered more attacks
to Pakistan, to Turkey.
And the purpose of the dialog
we now have going on in
NATO is how to ensure
that those security threats are
threats are addressed in the pro
You said
recently that the failure
to incorporate Sweden
at the same time as Finland,
something you have spent
considerable time
on was not a personal setback.
You clearly believe that
Sweden will still get membership
But do you
still genuinely believe that
this is not
a personal setback at this point
I generally believe that
also Sweden will become a member
and I have stated
clearly that
the most important thing
is not that Finland and Sweden
joined the alliance exactly
at the same time.
The most important thing is that
also Sweden become
becomes a member in the near fut
And we need to understand
that this is so far
the quickest accession
process in NATO's modern history
Finland and Sweden
applied in May last year or in J
All allies invited them
to be called members and all the
less than a year
after Finland is a member
and we are working hard to
also get Sweden
as a full member in the near fut
We also have to understand
that Sweden is a much better
and much safer position
now than before they applied
because as soon as all
allies invited them,
they got the status as a team
and meaning that they are now in
into NATO's military and civilia
structures, participating in
to military and civilian activit
And allies have provided
bilateral security assurances
and also with Finland in Sweden
becomes even safer
and it's absolutely inconceivabl
that there would be
any military threat
or attack against Sweden
without NATO reacting.
So they are in a better place
while we are working for
the full fledged membership, also for Swe
The Ukrainian foreign minister h
welcomed Finland's accession to
and the speed at which this has
He said the best way
to guarantee security in Europe,
which is what this is all about
at the end of the day,
was to have Ukraine inside the a
Do you agree and if so, when
So NATO's position is
that Ukraine will become a membe
of the alliance.
Our immediate task, our main foc
now is, of course, to
provide support to Ukraine
to ensure
that Ukraine prevails
as a sovereign,
independent nation in in Europe,
which is a precondition
for any meaningful discussion
about membership
and and thirdly, we are also now
starting to work on a more long
program where we can help Ukrain
move from Soviet
era doctrines
standards, equipment to NATO sta
and also to
increase their interoperability
with NATO forces.
We have not made any decisions
on our own
when a membership can be decided
But in the meantime,
we need to ensure that Ukraine p
and that we are helping
Ukraine to move towards
Euro-Atlantic integration.
Well, Hungary's
foreign minister
says that inviting Ukraine even
meetings undermines
the principle of the alliance's
What's your response to that?
Well, I think it's important
to meet with Ukraine also in the
well-established forum,
the need to Ukraine, a commissio
as we did yesterday
with the foreign minister
Kuleba, to discuss how to
sustain the unprecedented suppor
NATO allies are providing to Ukr
But also to discuss reforms,
but also to raise issues
related to minority rights.
So I think it is a good thing
to have a platform
where we can have dialog and als
a wide range of issues
which are important
for Europe,
for NATO allies and for Ukraine.
Short term.
Long term for Ukraine has short
It is desperate for more ammunit
It is absolutely clear
that Europe cannot manufacture
that ammunition quickly enough.
What are you going to do about t
Well, we are ramping up producti
We saw all the day last fall
that this has not
become a war of attrition,
which is a war of logistics.
So we are working
closely with the defense industr
across the alliance
to ramp up production,
partly to be able
to replenish our own stocks,
but also, of course,
to be able to continue to provid
the support
to Ukraine
that they need to be able
to launch a new counter-offensiv
and to liberate and more land
We also work with our partners o
NATO.
We met with South Korea today.
I went there some weeks ago.
And for instance, South
Korea is indeed the partner
that is ramping up
production, delivering more ammu
to NATO allies
so we can replenish our stocks
and then also be able
to provide more support to Ukrai
I have to ask you, China's leade
visited Moscow,
of course,
last month and has been told rep
by by NATO members
there would be
and I quote here, consequences
if China or Beijing supplies let
to Moscow.
Do you have any evidence
that that is the intention?
And what sort of consequences
are we speaking about here?
If indeed China did provide
that lethal aid to
we are not able to confirm
that China has delivered lethal
or weapons to Russia.
But we are monitoring very close
what China does, because what we
is that
China and Russia are working
more and more closely together
also in the military domain.
They have joint naval
air patrols,
big military exercises together.
China and Russia
signed a joint declaration
just weeks before the invasion
was there, where they stated
clearly that their partnership i
without any limits, no limits.
And then, of course,
we also know that China has not
the illegal
invasion of
Ukraine by
President Putin and the other Ru
And therefore, allies are not le
our biggest ally.
The United States I made it clea
China was to provide that lethal
Russia, there will be
profound consequences.