Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen questioned Finland and Norway’s decision to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, saying European countries should maintain a united approach to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV 2 she was skeptical of the call and argued that European governments should act together rather than separately.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre spoke with Putin by phone from Helsinki on Tuesday, Finland’s president’s office said. Norway’s prime minister’s office said the two leaders consulted Ukraine before contacting Putin and discussed the war and diplomatic efforts to end it.
The Norwegian and Finnish offices described Stubb and Støre as speaking for their own countries, not on behalf of Europe as a whole. Norway’s office connected the call to planned meetings in Abu Dhabi and to the leaders’ earlier discussions in Oslo on Oct. 20.
Those Oslo talks brought together Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Stubb and Støre, with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also involved. Zelenskyy asked the envoys to carry ideas developed with European leaders to Russia, as EconoTimes reported on the Oslo discussions.
The Oslo agenda included Ukraine’s security and territorial questions, sanctions, European security and proposals for prosperity after the war, according to EconoTimes’ coverage. Støre has described the war’s human and material toll as severe, with suffering and destruction affecting generations. The Abu Dhabi meetings are the next diplomatic step cited by the officials; they did not specify a date.
