Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre advises caution after call with Russian president in run-up to peace talks

Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian prime minister, expressed doubt about Donald Trump’s claim that a ‘big, beautiful deal’ between Russia and Ukraine is close Credit: EPA/Shutterstock/Radek Pietruszka

By Tim Ross

Nov 9, 2026

Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian prime minister, is already unpopular with Donald Trump, who blames his government for not giving him the Nobel Peace Prize and recently dismissed Norway as “a s—house country”.

Now Mr Støre is casting doubt on the US president’s bullish prediction that a “big, beautiful” peace deal is close to being signed to end nearly five years of war between Russia and Ukraine.

In an interview with Politico – which, like The Telegraph, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network – before the restart of talks in Abu Dhabi, Mr Støre gave a sober assessment of the mindset of Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, and the chances of an imminent ceasefire.

And, as the White House touts plans to overhaul the established security order in Europe, Mr Støre bluntly warned that the Continent’s defences must not become a bargaining chip in the negotiation to end the war in Ukraine.

“I would be cautious,” he said, when asked what he expected to come out of the latest talks scheduled for the United Arab Emirates. “Abu Dhabi is a stepping stone, and one output of it should be a follow-up quite soon after.”

According to Mr Støre, the Abu Dhabi agenda will potentially include talks about a ceasefire for the Black Sea to allow grain to be safely transported, a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, a front-line freeze in the conflict and other “confidence-building measures”, such as prisoner swaps.

There had also been work on the question of security guarantees to ensure Putin does not attack again, he said.

Negotiating teams from Moscow and Kyiv are set to sit down with the US in Abu Dhabi on Nov 10-11. It is the first three-way meeting the sides have had since February, and comes after a month of intensifying diplomacy and increasingly impatient demands from Mr Trump to deliver a deal.

Norway’s leader has found himself at the centre of the storm more than once in that time. Working with his close friend and regional ally Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president, Mr Støre tried to rescue the faltering peace process last month by hosting a meeting with Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s envoy, and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, in Oslo.

That got Ukraine and the US back on the same page and prepared the ground for the Abu Dhabi discussion. But a day after the Oslo meeting, Mr Witkoff was in St Petersburg praising Putin as “a humanitarian”, a statement that horrified many of Ukraine’s European allies.

Mr Støre said he was too diplomatic to reveal how the remark made him feel, but he added: “It would not have been part of my vocabulary.”

Given Mr Witkoff’s pivotal role in the negotiations, as well as Mr Trump’s recent declaration that Russia has been “fine” in Ukraine, does Mr Støre trust these individuals as guardians of a fair peace process for Ukraine? Should Europe trust them?

For all his tact and experience as a foreign minister, the 66-year-old Norwegian’s reply is not a straightforward yes. “I trust that the US is seeking a way to end this war,” he said.

Hotline to the Kremlin

On Oct 27, Mr Støre and Mr Stubb took matters into their own hands. Rather than wait for the US to negotiate a deal with Putin that would have vast ramifications for Europe, they picked up the phone to call the Kremlin directly.

It was a rare outreach from pro-Ukraine leaders to Putin, who has been frozen out by Europe since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Their 90-minute call shocked and dismayed some of the Nordics’ neighbours in countries such as Denmark and Latvia, who believed Europe should continue to isolate the Russian aggressor.

Mr Støre rejected that idea and defended their decision to open up a line of communication directly to the Kremlin. “Let’s admit it. He is not isolated,” he said. “The only voice reaching Moscow comes from Washington.”

While Norway and Finland had good relations with the American negotiators, the war was happening in Europe, he said. “Living month by month thinking that this war will end by Europe not talking to Moscow, I think, is an illusion,” he added. “We believe that there should be European voices reaching Putin, with the message of why and how we support Ukraine.”

Rational. Not a peacemaker

Having spoken to Putin, how would Mr Støre characterise his state of mind?

“I would describe it as professional. I would describe it as rational,” he said. “It was a conversation where we agreed the principles – we would not interrupt, we will keep [to] statements. His arguments were perfectly clearly transmitted.”

Some reports suggested that Putin used the call to lecture the two Nordic leaders on Slavic history as his justification for the war, an impression the Norwegian wanted to correct: “I just have to say, you know, I was present. He didn’t.”

Does Mr Støre believe Putin wants peace? “Well, if he had wanted peace, there would have been no war at the outset. If he had wanted peace during these five years, when he sees that his country is regressing, that neighbouring countries are becoming members of Nato, that his people are being killed, and all these terrible things, the war would have ended. So that is one side to that.”

But at the same time, “the fact that he picks up that phone” to talk, “I think that signals, at least that there’s a readiness to sit down.” And while Mr Støre has not seen signs “so far” that Putin is genuinely open to a deal, sending a team to Abu Dhabi and being responsible for “not delivering anything” also has “a price”.

Later this week, European leaders are set to debate who should represent them in Ukraine negotiations when they meet for an informal summit in Dublin. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, is particularly frustrated that the EU has failed to make a plan for how ensure its voice is fully heard when decisions are made.

Mr Støre said he had followed the debate about whether somebody should be “talking on behalf of a larger group” in Europe – “and I think there should be”.

It could be one individual, or a different arrangement, he said. Crucially, Europe needs to decide on its core collective messages and goals and then appoint a person or people to deliver those to Trump and Putin, he said.

Increasingly, Mr Støre said he had been looking to the so-called E3 to play this role – Europe’s biggest three economic powers, Germany, France and the UK.

Whoever ends up speaking for European interests, one urgent task facing the region is how to stop Mr Trump and Putin from carving up a new security plan, raising fears in Europe about cuts to the US troop presence, or weakening Nato’s role – a long-time goal of Russia’s leader.

On Friday, Mr Trump and his team suggested the US was working on a major overhaul of European security that the president said might involve “the whole of Europe”.

Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, said the goal was “to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides”.

But rolling the future of the US’s role in European security into a negotiation about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not acceptable to Norway.

“Any issues relating to European architecture on security will have to be dealt with after the end of the war,” said Mr Støre. “Russia keeps floating the ideas they had in the end of [2021] about where there could be Nato and where there could not be Nato. That is not for Russia to decide. This has nothing to do with this point in the negotiations.”

In private, some European officials are resigned to the fact that Mr Trump’s recurrent bashing of Nato allies has already weakened the effectiveness of the alliance as a deterrent against Russian aggression.

Mr Støre insisted Nato remained in good shape. “We can discuss whether this or that statement helps,” he said. “I think sometimes it’s hard to say yes, they do help.”

Here is the Telegraph clip of Witkoff’s sickening “Putin humanitarian” quote.

Original article, copiously illustrated, plus videos, here :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/11/09/putins-frame-of-mind-interview/