‘Not in the same basket as China’: Finland’s Stubb bats for India amid Trump’s tariff antics

The Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, has called on the West to engage more with India as it emerges as a superpower, adding that he won’t put India in the same basket as Russia or China.

“Some multi-vectoral foreign policy is taking place there. I think, of course, Russia and China have a direct connection. In the early 1990s China and Russia had economies of the same size, but now China is over 10 times bigger. And actually, with its oil purchase, with its gas purchase, with its technological exchange, it does give the possibility for Russia to conduct the war, so there’s a very close link there,” said Stubb in an interview with Bloomberg.

“Then of course with India, India is a very close ally of the European Union and of course of the United States as well, so I wouldn’t throw them in the same basket, but India is obviously an emerging superpower. It’s got demography. It’s got economy on its side, and I always argue that it’s very important for the West to engage India, work with them,” he added.

This isn’t the first time Stubb has called for deeper engagement with India on global security matters. At the 2025 Helsinki Security Forum, he emphasised India’s role in contributing to a resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“I’ve been speaking to PM Modi recently about the situation in Ukraine. India has a geopolitical stake here. So we need to get them involved,” he said at the time.

Earlier this year, in August, Stubb held a phone call with PM Modi, where the two leaders discussed the progress of India-Finland bilateral ties.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Stubb shared his assessment of recent discussions held in Washington between European, U.S., and Ukrainian leaders on resolving the Ukraine crisis.