It all started with a run on Djurgården during a meeting in Stockholm in 2008. Finland's new foreign minister Alexander Stubb arranged a meeting with his Norwegian colleague Jonas Gahr Støre outside the Grand Hôtel at 06.30. So they started running - and the Norwegian learned that Stubb is an athlete and that Djurgården is big.
It was the start of a close friendship.
- Once we considered running in the Vasaloppet, and we offered to pull our Swedish colleague Carl Bildt in a sled. We thought it was very funny - but Carl didn't, Jonas Gahr Støre told Stubb in a speech during a Finnish state visit last fall.
Nowadays, "Alex and Jonas" - yes, they call themselves that sometimes - lead two of Sweden's neighboring countries. Støre took office as prime minister in Norway in the fall of 2021. Alexander Stubb won the presidential election in Finland in the winter of 2024.
Over the past month, their efforts for peace in Europe have made headlines. First, Støre and Stubb arranged talks in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and US envoy Steve Witkoff. They then called Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Stubb & Støre are talking about," states Aftenposten's political editor Kjetil B Alstadheim in a column. He states that the duo has rekindled a question that has remained unresolved ever since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly five years ago: Who is making Europe's case?
On Tuesday, Zelenskyj will meet the Nordic leaders in Denmark. At the same time, Russia, the USA and Ukraine are meeting at official level in Abu Dhabi.
The talks will be a test of the contribution from Støre and Stubb.
- It is not groundbreaking in the sense that it fundamentally changes the structure or shapes the peace for Ukraine. But it is an important step forward, one initiative among many, to especially ensure that the Ukrainians have a greater influence on the peace process, says Iro Särkkä, senior researcher at the Finnish Foreign Policy Institute.
At best, Støre and Stubb have prevented the major powers from having free play.
- My analysis is that the European allies cannot fully trust the Americans to convey decisive messages. That is why they have tried to ensure that the Ukrainian voice is heard in the Kremlin, says Iro Särkkä.
The confidential relationship is a prerequisite. The two top politicians from Finland and Norway have found each other - despite their differences.
The charismatic 58-year-old Alexander Stubb dominates every stage he steps onto, while the 66-year-old Jonas Gahr Støre has a more low-key luminosity. Stubb comes from the Finnish sister party of the Moderates, the Samlingspartiet. Støre represents the social democratic Labor Party.
They share the knowledge of international relations. Both have studied at elite universities in Europe. Both come from countries with a direct border with Russia and elements of pragmatism in foreign policy. The oil country Norway is sometimes described as a humanitarian superpower, with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, extensive aid and numerous mediation efforts. But the country also helped form NATO in 1949. Norwegian rulers have cultivated the relationship with Washington for decades.
Finland was non-aligned for a long time, just like Sweden. But Swedish politicians had the freedom to highlight neutrality as a virtue. For Finland, with its proximity to the former Soviet Union, neutrality was a necessity.
Now the country is part of NATO, and Alexander Stubb, who is a former national team player in golf, has been given the status of Europe's Trump whisperer. He was allowed to accompany the president on a round of golf in Florida in March 2025. Perhaps his warnings about Moscow had the intended effect, because shortly thereafter Trump announced that he was angry with Putin. Golf diplomacy around Ukraine has continued, with informal negotiations at Envoy Witkoff's Shell Bay golf club in Florida.
It can be complicated to reach a president who sometimes wants to be recognized as a global prince of peace, and sometimes demands control over the Western Hemisphere.
When the Greenland crisis escalated last winter, Støre and Stubb sent text messages to Trump. The Norwegian Aftenposten has published the closing clip: "We suggest a telephone conversation with you later today - either with both of us or with each of us individually - let us know what you prefer. Kind regards - Alex and Jonas".
An American journalist got hold of Støre's answer: "Given that your country chose not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize despite having stopped eight wars, I no longer feel any obligation to think only about peace," Trump wrote.
In the election campaign before the autumn mid-term elections, he condemned Norway as a "shithouse country".
Actually, he knows very well that it is the Norwegian Nobel Committee and not the Prime Minister of Norway that awards the peace prize.
- That is Donald Trump's style, Støre stated in DN last spring.
"Alex and Jonas" have not given up. They called the meeting in Oslo in an emergency, as relations between the US and Ukraine soured, following Trump's agreement to buy Russian diesel. It was the call to Putin the following week that created convulsions in the Nordic region. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was "very skeptical". Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated that previous talks have been "completely pointless".
According to the Financial Times, Putin gave a long history lesson on Slavic rulers. Both Stubb and Støre have denied and demanded a correction in vain.
At worst, the Nordic leadership duo has contributed to Russian propaganda about a divided Europe.
- I think there were good intentions behind the initiative. They really wanted to help Ukraine and send a signal to both the Russians and the Americans that there might be alternatives that are okay for the Europeans and the Ukrainians. But it was poorly prepared and poorly executed, says Arkady Moshes, program director for Russia at the Foreign Policy Institute in Helsinki.
He notes that Støre's and Stubb's conversation with Putin still raises questions.
- It's a bad sign, he says.
Tormod Heier, professor at the Norwegian Defense Academy in Oslo, thinks, on the contrary, that it bodes well that the discussion with Putin lasted an hour and a half.
- It is too early to say whether the conversation will have any real effect. But in Europe, Norway and to some extent Finland are regarded as credible peace brokers with deep, specialized expertise in peace work and reconciliation, he claims.
"Alex and Jonas" have a lot to analyze when they go on their next jog. In the speech to Stubb the year before last fall, Støre revealed the trick to persevere:
- It's inviting Alex to talk - while I listen.
