It made the problem bigger than it was. Sweden was not left alone out in the cold, says Jens Stoltenberg in a TT interview about why he asked Kristersson to think about how he expressed himself.
I understand the frustration, but if you present yourself as weak and vulnerable, Moscow can misunderstand and think that it's actually so.
The original plan was different, however, he admits in the new book "My time in Nato". The idea was that Sweden and Finland, which after Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 applied for membership in Nato, would go through the process together.
When Turkey signaled that it was ready to let Finland in but not Sweden, the Nato chief changed his mind.
Over the finish line
"This is bad, really bad", Kristersson complained according to the book when it became clear that Finland would go first.
Stoltenberg, who largely praises the prime minister and his predecessor Magdalena Andersson (S) for a "fantastic cooperation", was of a different opinion:
I thought it was better to get Finland in first, then Nato would more than double the border with Russia. Sweden would become an island in Nato territory and we could focus on getting Sweden over the finish line, he says.
It's been almost exactly a year since Jens Stoltenberg left Brussels and the post as Nato's secretary general after a full ten years in the post. Now the former Norwegian prime minister and former leader of the Labour Party works as finance minister. And he has written "My time in Nato", which is mainly based on his own notes and recordings of conversations.
The reader gets to follow along to a corn party with President Erdogan and on a boat trip on the Bosphorus, which is described as an important piece of the puzzle to get Sweden into Nato. Stoltenberg describes narrow rooms behind the plenary sessions of the summits and the thumping train to Kyiv, where he struggled to assure Volodymyr Zelenskyj of Nato's support despite doubts in the Nato leadership.
It's hard to be more open than I have been, says Stoltenberg, referring to the work on the book.
Pull out?
Stoltenberg also writes about the anxiety when Donald Trump in 2018 considered excluding Norway from the alliance and then threatened to leave ("You need Nato desperately, we don't need Nato"). He tells about the handling of Trump's anger over everything from Angela Merkel's laughter to the fact that many countries in Europe spent less than 2 percent of GDP on defense. The latter was solved by attributing the increased defense efforts that were made anyway to "Trump's leadership".
What does he see as his biggest defeats? The answer comes quickly: The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. And that Ukraine did not receive more military support earlier.
Had it happened, Ukraine would today control larger parts of its country, says Stoltenberg.
Jens Stoltenberg (born 1959) is Norway's finance minister. He was the military alliance Nato's secretary general between 2014 and 2024.
The economist Stoltenberg has a long political career behind him for the social democratic Labour Party. He was minister of industry and energy 1993-1996, finance minister 1996-1997 and prime minister in two rounds: 2000-2001 and 2005-2013.
Stoltenberg's father Thorvald was minister of defense and foreign affairs on several occasions and his mother Karin was a state secretary.
Jens Stoltenberg is married to diplomat Ingrid Schulerud and the couple has two adult children. In his free time, he likes to ski and cook, among other things.
