Stoltenberg: It was right to enter into dialogue with Russia after the Cold War

– I believe to this day that it was the right thing to try. It was a historical window that was right to try to exploit in order to get a better relationship with Russia, says Stoltenberg in an interview with the Danish newspaper The politics.

Dialogue between Russian presidents and NATO became a kind of new normal in the years following the Cold War. But since 2021, Stoltenberg has not spoken to Putin.

During almost ten years as Norway’s prime minister, Stoltenberg was one of the Western politicians who knew Putin the best. Stoltenberg negotiated an agreement on the sharing of the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia, and during his prime ministership it became possible for Russians to go shopping in Kirkenes without a visa.

– The first time I met Putin was in August 2000. Now talk of meaningful dialogue with the current Russian regime in Moscow is a thing of the past. This is how it is, says Stoltenberg in the interview.

– Sin of omission

– It would have been a sin of omission if, in the years following the end of the Cold War – i.e. in the 90s and well into the new millennium – we had not attempted dialogue with and understanding in relation to Russia and President Putin, says Stoltenberg.

He took over as NATO chief in 2014 and says that he then considered that the basis for dialogue with Russia had deteriorated.

– But I still believed that it was possible to talk to Russia. And I don’t regret it, he says in the interview.

The West’s attempts at dialogue with Russia also following the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas uprising in 2014 were correct, he believes.

Strength building

But the dialogue track was not the only one, the NATO chief points out.

– We saw that Russia was becoming more aggressive. We saw what happened to Crimea. But we continued for a long time in what we call a double track, i.e. building up NATO’s military strength, deterring Russia and dialogue at the same time. I was one of the many who believed that we might not give up on the dialogue track, says Stoltenberg.

– We invested in defence. We started having rising defense spending. We deployed NATO forces in Eastern Europe for the first time in NATO’s history. There was no contradiction between a strong defense and dialogue. On the contrary, he tells the Danish newspaper.

Norwegian example

At a security conference in November 2022, regarding nine months into the Ukraine war, Stoltenberg vehemently denied that NATO expansion poses a security threat to Russia. At that time, Sweden and Finland were not yet members, but had submitted their applications.

Stoltenberg used Norway as an example. Norway joined NATO in 1949, and at that time the country was the only country in the defense alliance that bordered Russia.

– At the time, Russia said that it was completely unacceptable for Norway to become a NATO member. That it was a provocation. It was not a provocation, but a free and independent decision taken by Norwegians, Stoltenberg said at the conference.

In August last year, Stoltenberg touched on the same topic. To understand that Russia does not accept neighboring countries’ wishes to become a NATO member would be a dangerous thought for Norway, he said, and argued that it is Russia that has chosen to use military force once morest neighboring countries that seek the West rather than dialogue and cooperation.