Arabic version: النرويج وفنلندا تجريان اتصالاً نادراً مع بوتين

According to BBC News, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a joint call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss future negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The two leaders said the initiative was not taken on behalf of Europe as a whole. Speaking from Helsinki, they said Finland and Norway border Russia and had initiated the call to discuss Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, diplomatic efforts to end it, and peace and stability in Europe.

Støre said the war carried enormous human and material costs, with suffering and destruction set to affect generations. Stubb described the conversation as frank and substantive, saying the outcome of the war would directly affect Nordic and wider European security.

Putin said after the call that what he described as confrontational European Union and Nato policies were prolonging the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later spoke with Stubb and Støre and thanked them for their active support.

The leaders also discussed planned trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi in November. Stubb and Støre said their call followed discussions in Oslo on 20 October, after which US special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin.