Finnish President Alexander Stubb, one of Donald Trump’s closest European confidants, said he and the U.S. leader had a “constructive discussion” on Wednesday about NATO and problem solving.
Stubb’s remarks come as Trump publicly mulls pulling the United States out of the transatlantic alliance, with Western leaders nervously anticipating a national address from Trump scheduled for 9 p.m. local time, which is the middle of the night in Europe.
In a post on X Stubb wrote: “Spoke with [Trump]. Constructive discussion and exchange of ideas on NATO, Ukraine and Iran. Problems are there to be solved, pragmatically,” without providing further details about the conversation.
Trump is furious with European countries for not fully joining the war against Iran, which started Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israel conducting bombing raids across the Persian nation.
European countries have also been largely unwilling to intervene militarily in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global trade chokepoint that Iran has blocked in response to the attacks. This week, EU countries and NATO members Italy and Spain even imposed restrictions on U.S. planes involved in military strikes against Iran.
Later on Wednesday, Trump told Reuters that the United States may soon end the war against Iran, but might return for “spot hits” if needed. As for the exact date of the end of the war, he told the news agency: “I can’t tell you exactly … we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”
Source:
www.politico.eu
