Alexander Stubb wears a light-colored tie as he steps across creaky wooden floors into the Presidential Palace, the stately residence in central Helsinki. He has recently returned from the climate summit in Brazil and is scheduled to visit NATO and EU leaders in Brussels on Monday.
The intense diplomacy regarding primarily the Ukraine war continues, and Stubb has a central role, partly thanks to his good contact with Donald Trump. After playing golf with the US president, and being invited to summits where normally only major powers attend, the Finn is referred to as the “Trump whisperer”.
"I very much see myself as both a Zelenskyy and a Trump whisperer. It doesn't just go one way," he says of his close contacts with the leaders of the United States and Ukraine.
Cross throw
Stubb describes it as him “interpreting” between great powers and parties.
I want to explicitly say that I work in the “back office,” explains the Finnish president.
It's the big boys and girls who make the big decisions.
With the unpredictable Trump in the White House, there could be sharp turns.
Trump's way of working is that you can't always be sure what will happen tomorrow. That's a reality that we're working with.
But Stubb says that US leaders are usually easy to reach when needed, regardless of time zone.
You can call anytime. He sleeps quite a bit.
Trump's representative Barack Obama once said that the US president was barely allowed to have a cell phone for security reasons, but that is no longer the case, Stubb emphasizes.
This is modern diplomacy, and it no longer always goes through intermediaries like it did before.
“Different tools”
Volodymyr Zelensky is an exception, however – due to Russia's aggressive war, the Ukrainian president lives with an extreme sense of threat. But despite this, cooperation with him is "perhaps even closer," says Stubb.
We have very good contact. But there are not regular mobile lines, there we have slightly different tools that we use.
Regarding Russia, former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has recently attracted attention by advocating more direct contacts with President Vladimir Putin. But times are changing, says Stubb.
The world is different than it was during the Cold War and after the Cold War. We are team players, so we don't have a special role. At least not the role we once had.
He also doesn't want to speculate on what comes after Putin - can Russia become a good neighbor?
"I think no one can be as good a neighbor as Sweden," smiles Alexander Stubb.
57 years old.
Has roots in, among other places, Viborg, which is now in Russia, but was born and raised in Helsinki.
His father was a talent scout for the North American hockey league NHL, and Alexander Stubb became interested in the USA at an early age. He lived in South Carolina in the 1980s, where he studied at Furman University and eventually became a golf professional.
Began a political career by being elected to the European Parliament in 2004. Then held several different ministerial positions from 2008 onwards, was Prime Minister in 2014–15.
President since March 1, 2024. In Finland, the Prime Minister handles domestic policy, which means that the President has a heavy role in foreign affairs.
