00:00Chairman Mikkelsen, thank you so much for your time today.
00:06Do you think enough is being done by the West in general to counter both aggression by Moscow
00:11but also Beijing?
00:13I don't think so we have done enough, because war is going on.
00:18And I see that Russians, they are not even interested about ceasefire.
00:23Ukrainians offered in March an unconditional ceasefire, the Russians to start negotiating
00:29about the future, the end of the war.
00:31But that's what tells us.
00:35We need more robust support given to Ukraine in terms of military support, not setting any
00:43limits using the weaponry we sent to them.
00:47But also, I think we haven't put enough economic pressure on Russia, specifically when it comes
00:54to energy sector, buying oil or gas from Russia, still we send money to kill Ukrainians.
01:02And that is amoral.
01:04And I think that we have to stop it.
01:07European nations decided now that to really cut off any shipment from Russia in terms of
01:15oil or gas by the end of 27.
01:17And yes, again, bit too slow, but still significant change when you think where we were, let's say,
01:23five years ago, what kind of dependency, for instance, Germany had from Russia.
01:30But again, while war is going on, we should, you know, say to ourselves that we have not done yet enough.
01:41And I very much hope that leaders will recognize that, because there is a wide support.
01:48And I learned that also in Australia, absolute majority supports Ukraine and also the help
01:55given by Australian government to Ukraine.
01:59And that is so critically important message also to aggressor.
02:04You will not succeed.
02:06And just lastly, do you see parallels between deterrents within Europe and also the Indo-Pacific?
02:13And what kind of lessons should allies be sharing on these two issues?
02:17You know, last year, same time, we visited Taiwan.
02:22And they are obviously very closely following what is happening in Europe, because keeping stability
02:30in Taiwan's straits and stability in the South China Sea is critically important, not only
02:36for them, but everybody who are connected to the world economy.
02:41And this globally connects all of us and our interests, the national interests.
02:46And in that regard, obviously, again, if we want to maintain stability and also rule of law-based
02:59world order, then the most critical here is to make sure that Russia will not succeed in
03:06their aggression.
03:08And they will be defeated in that war.
03:12Yes, it seems for many very difficult task.
03:18But what is alternative?
03:21And in that regard, we strongly advocate strong support to Ukraine and also very strong unity
03:29of European nations, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, P4, partners for NATO.
03:39Because again, you know, we have to understand that those potential conflict zones in the future,
03:46they are all connected.
03:48And if we don't care, don't take care about what is happening right now in Ukraine, we will
03:54have a much more costly situation in years to come.
03:59Do you think that Western countries such as the United States, such as Australia, should
04:05be outward in their support and say sort of point blank that they'd come to Taiwan's defence
04:11in the event that China would invade?
04:14Do you think that needs to be, I guess, a blanket statement from them?
04:17I think what has been done so far has been quite remarkable.
04:24Because statement also, as I understand by your government, that status quo around Taiwan
04:34Straits is absolute necessity to keep stability and predictability when it comes to security
04:45or international security, and that tells you directly what is in our interest.
04:54Obviously, the situation is very complicated and there is, in East Asia, there is no NATO-type
05:04alliance, perhaps yet, we don't know.
05:09But what I see is a growing cooperation between like-minded nations.
05:15And this is partly why we are here, is that we have to pay much more attention to what is
05:22happening also in the Pacific region and see those, let's say, opportunities also, how we can cooperate
05:31together.
05:32Thank you so much for your time.
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