00:00You visited the European Commission today to meet with the European Commissioner for Defense,
00:04Andres Kobilius. What did you talk about?
00:06We talked about how to stop the war in Ukraine by stopping Putin. Putin has intensified the attacks
00:15against Ukraine with drones and missiles. He hopes to bomb the Ukrainian people into
00:23submission during the coming winter. And at the same time, we have seen President Trump
00:32choose Moscow and siding with Putin. And this is a situation we have to take seriously.
00:40The Europeans must wake up. If we don't, we would be sleepwalking into a permanent war on the
00:48European continent. Europe is begging for a place at the table. But you cannot beg you
01:00to a seat at the table. You have to make yourself indispensable by bringing assets to the table.
01:10So I hope Europe will now wake up, shift gear and tell both the Americans and the Ukrainians,
01:21we are ready. We have some assets to bring to the table.
01:25But you speak about going to the table. And we saw that the leaders from Finland and Norway were
01:30under fire for a 90 minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister of
01:35your country, Mette Friedrichsen, blasted this, stating that this shouldn't have occurred. Do you
01:40follow her train of thought? Or is this the right step for a nation to step up and say,
01:45we're the voice of Europe?
01:47Well, I think it's a good thing to talk with the Russians. But it should be coordinated. And we should
02:00understand that we in Europe cannot be neutral mediators. We will side with the Ukrainians. We
02:08will speak on behalf of the Ukrainians. I think that's what we first and foremost should do.
02:17But there has been also some criticism from the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs,
02:22Radosław Sikorski, stating that negotiations shouldn't go over the heads of Eastern European
02:27countries. You were NATO Secretary General. When a lot of these countries joined NATO,
02:32were you concerned that perhaps a leader from a Western European country might not have the best
02:37interests at heart when it comes to Europe's Eastern flank?
02:41Yeah, but we should have listened to the Eastern Europeans in due time. And I think it's important
02:50that Europe gets a seat at the table. But we should do it by bringing assets to the table. And
03:00I think
03:01that's more important than actually appointing someone.
03:05Fair enough. And the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, is touring the Black Sea,
03:12starting from Monday until Tuesday. It comes off a spate of drone incursions, which have sunk
03:18commercial vessels, have killed seafarers. Do you think that this region can truly be safe?
03:25We should establish what I would call a Black Sea sentry, like we have done in the Baltic Sea.
03:36We should establish a maritime mission in the Black Sea to ensure free navigation.
03:45But do you think that this is something that the European Commission should do? Or is this firmly in
03:50the hands of NATO, which has already beefed up its presence in the region?
03:54Well, I'm not sure we should make it a NATO mission, but it could be a Turkish, Bulgarian,
04:00Romanian-led mission.
04:02Yes. And one final question. The Ukrainian President, Vladimir Zelenskyy, has stated that he's
04:07waited a significant amount of time for Patriot interceptor missiles made from the United States.
04:13These are weapons paid for by European allies. What do you think the hold-up is, and how is this
04:19impacting Ukraine on the battlefield?
04:21Well, obviously, it's damaging for the defense of Ukraine. And I'm so disappointed that the Americans
04:30have not delivered what they have promised to deliver. I'm not going to guess about the reasons
04:38why, but it just underlines the need for us in Europe to be able to stand on our own feet.
04:49When you were NATO Secretary General, did you ever see anything like this that you can ever compare it to?
04:56Not at all. I mean, it was another era. It was an era where we could trust the American ally.
05:07I think when push comes to show, the Americans will come to the aid of Europe. But we have to
05:15be able to
05:16stand on our own feet. It's high time that we take decisions in Europe, irrespective of who is residing
05:22in the White House.
