NATO chief says Putin is getting ‘the exact opposite’ of what he wanted

Mr. Secretary General, I appreciate your time. I want to start with something that I think everybody was observing yesterday, and that was the Victory Day parade in Moscow. There was a lot of attention paid to just how scaled down it was. Did you read anything in what we all saw? Is there something to take away from that? I think we always should be careful reading too much into a scaled-down parade. Anyway, it reflects the fact that Russia has lost a lot of capabilities in the war against Ukraine. We have to remember that this was a war that President Putin planned to win within days.

And now they have been in Ukraine for 15 months, and they have suffered heavy casualties. And this just demonstrates the big strategic mistake it was by President Putin to launch aggression against Ukraine. You mentioned the length of the war, the expectations at the very start of the invasion, the durability and the ability for Ukraine to succeed up to this point or to push back throughout the course of the last 15 months. I think it's astonished most people, if not everyone. However, Ukrainian officials have voiced some concern that the expectations may be a little bit too high for the counter-offensive. Concern tied to the fact that if there aren't some sweeping victories or significant pushes that the alliance that is held together remarkably well over the course of 15 months supporting Ukraine may start to wither, may start to fracture a little bit. What's your read on that? President Putin made at least two big mistakes when he invaded Ukraine.

One was to totally underestimate the Ukrainian. The Ukrainian armed forces, the Ukrainian leadership, President Zelensky. But he also totally underestimated NATO and NATO allies and at least the U.S. leadership that has been demonstrated since the invasion, where NATO allies has provided unprecedented support to Ukraine and where NATO allies and partners have reiterated again and again that we will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. And this is just demonstrated this week with a new announcement from the United States, more than one billion extra dollars in military aid. And of course wars are by nature unpredictable.

But what we have seen is that the Ukrainians have been able to retake territory before, earlier in this war in the north, around Kiev, in the east, around Kharkiv and in the south again around Heysion. And all the equipment, all the training they have received from NATO allies and partners, including nine brigades trained and well-equipped, all of this should enable them to retake more territory in the counteroffensive. At the same time, we should never underestimate the Russians. The front lines have been static for a long time, and the Russians have been able to build significant defensive lines with mine fields and trenches to, of course, counter the planned counteroffensive. You mentioned the durability of the alliance, which I think is probably going stronger and actually larger by at least one since the invasion. But there's another nation, Sweden, that is also in line to join. Do you believe Sweden, which is facing some issues with at least one member country, possibly two, will be part of the alliance by July during the NATO summit? I'm absolutely confident that Sweden will become a member.

I will work hard to ensure that that will happen by the summit in Vilnius in July this year. And we have to remember that regardless of when that happens, that they will be a full member. Sweden is in a much better position now than before they applied, because all allies also, Trukija, invited Sweden to become a member at our summit last year in Madrid. And since then, Sweden has had a special status, an invitee, meaning that Sweden is participating in NATO meetings, structures integrating more and more into our civilian and military structures. Several allies, including the United States, have issued bilateral security assurances with Finland in, if you look at the map, Sweden is now surrounded by NATO countries. So it's absolutely inconceivable that there will be any attack or threat against Sweden without NATO reacting. So we have got a long way already, and I hope that we can finalize the accession process by Vilnius.

And let me just add that this is actually a third big strategic mistake that President Putin made. He invaded Ukraine and sent a clear message that he doesn't want more NATO on his borders. He's getting the exact opposite. He's getting more NATO presence in Eastern part of the alliance. And then he's getting two new members, Finland and Sweden. And with Finland, NATO's border with Russia more than doubles. Yeah, it's a dramatic shift.

I do want to ask you before I let you go. We're learning this morning, talks are underway between NATO and Japan to open a liaison office in the country. I think it would be the first in Asia. Can you confirm those talks are happening, what the strategy is behind them? Yes, we are talking with Japan about opening NATO office in Tokyo. NATO has several offices in partner countries. And Japan is a very close and important partner for NATO. And we agreed at the NATO summit last year that we should step up our partnership with our Indo-Pacific partners, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

I recently visited Japan and the message there was that security is not regional anymore. Security is global. What happens in Europe matters for Asia and what happens in Asia matters for Europe. And Beijing is watching closely what happens in Ukraine. The price President Putin is paying, but those are potential rewards. So what happens in Ukraine actually matters for the calculations Beijing, China is making regarding, for instance, Taiwan. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, thanks so much, sir.

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