A phone call with Vladimir Putin has put two unlikely leaders at the center of global diplomacy. But it’s no accident that Ukraine wanted Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on the line with the Russian leader.

The duo have a long history of working together, leveraging two decades of friendship to punch above their countries’ collective weight in international politics, according to people familiar with their dynamic. They were behind overtures to US President Donald Trump earlier this year over his threats to take Greenland. Months later, they got roughly 30 leaders to sign a call to regulate advanced AI models.

Still, many allies were astonished this week when Stubb and Støre contacted Putin at Ukraine’s behest to try and nudge the peace process forward nearly five years into Moscow’s all-out invasion.

The call, also coordinated with US envoys, was the first direct contact Ukraine’s European allies have had with Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron placed a call in July 2025. And it quickly put Stubb and Støre in the limelight as Europe’s latest Russia interlocutor — even as European leaders continue to quarrel over who should represent them in any peace talks.

While the outreach wasn’t unanimously well-received, it does present a new chance for Europe to be at the negotiating table during a pivotal moment. The US is cooling on Ukraine, Kyiv’s military and financial needs are mounting and Europe is confronting questions about how long it can sustain its support. Meanwhile, other traditional heavyweights like France, Germany and Italy are all mired in political crises or upcoming elections.

“Finland and Norway are showing that they want to open another channel of communication, so that Europe can receive information not only through the United States and Russia can hear certain things directly,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on Tuesday.

Stubb, 58, and Støre, 66, insist they’re not neutral brokers: “We work 100% for Ukraine,” Stubb said Tuesday.

Instead, the two see themselves as well-suited to doing what Stubb calls “back office” work, paving the way for major powers — like France, Germany, the UK, Italy and the European Union — to come in and negotiate.

Støre did some of that work this past summer, meeting with a former senior Russian official in Oslo, according to a person familiar with the get-together. The official told Støre that Europe should talk to Putin and not issue ultimatums. Støre's office declined to comment. Stubb’s office declined to comment.

Coming from societies built on trust, Stubb and Støre have managed to cultivate a relationship and communication style that works, speaking to each other often.

They click, said one person familiar with the how they work. Stubb wants to think big, on a European and global scale, and that resonates with Støre, the person said.

The tag team strategy is intentional — they give each other cover and take some pressure off each other in difficult negotiations, according to two people familiar with their work. The people all spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the leaders’ relationship.

Stubb and Støre first met in 2008 working as foreign ministers. Stubb, known as an avid triathlete and golfer, invited Støre for an early morning run during their first encounter in Stockholm, Støre recalled in a speech in Oslo earlier this month.

After the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in December that year, they went cross-country skiing in Oslo’s forests, documented in a picture published by Norway’s Aftenposten newspaper.

“We have gone for runs in the Swiss Alps and many other places,” Støre said. “And my ‘trick’ — which I want to share with you — for ‘keeping going’ is to invite Alex to talk, while I listen.”

Stubb, in his book “Alex” published in 2017, called Støre “a sporty fellow” and said they’d become “good friends.”Another parallel the duo share is their Francophile background. Both have studied in France — Stubb at the Sorbonne and Støre at Sciences Po — and speak fluent French.

“From the outside, we get the impression of two leaders who get along,” said Kristin Haugevik, research director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. “We know that personal relationships matter — understanding how the other side works and thinks.”The two are building on decades of peace diplomacy that the Nordic region is known for — and especially Norway, home of the Nobel Peace Prize. The hallmark of that work is talking to everyone and earning their trust, said Kristoffer Lidén, senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

“Talking does not exclude continued military support,” Lidén said. “The risk is that this is seen as being accommodating — that talking about painful compromises while the war goes on sends a signal of weakness.”European leaders have repeatedly argued that Putin only understands strength, and used that to justify their military aid to Ukraine. Accordingly, the duo’s Putin call drew rebukes from some allies.

“It’s clear that Putin doesn’t want peace, so one should be very cautious about giving him opportunities,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters in Helsinki, adding that she was skeptical of the “solo initiative.”

The call “breaks our unity,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Thursday, handing Russia an opportunity for propaganda it spins as Ukraine’s allies “going to Putin to plead for peace.”Norway and Finland argue they have a natural case — and Ukraine’s backing — to lead on outreach to Russia.

“We really have very good relations with these countries. They truly help,” Zelenskyy told reporters Tuesday, underscoring the countries’ shared concern about Ukraine’s future security arrangement, given Finland and Norway both border Russia.

Finland’s more than 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border is more than half of the NATO military alliance’s eastern flank, while Norway’s long coastline sits close to Russia’s northern fleet, which includes nuclear powered submarines. In the Arctic, Norway also jointly inhabits the Svalbard archipelago with Russia. There, in the Barents Sea, Støre negotiated a resolution with Moscow in 2010 as foreign minister over the once-disputed area.

Stubb, meanwhile, was handpicked in 2017 by former Finnish president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari as chairman of CMI, a peace mediation organization the latter had founded.

But the diplomatic duo has faced headwinds before. Their Trump outreach over Greenland triggered an angry response from Trump, who groused about his lack of a Nobel Peace Prize and proclaimed: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace.”And European leaders’ doubts about contacting Putin are unlikely to abate.

Still, with riots in France, the far right ascendant in Germany, frequently changing prime ministers in Britain and Trump souring on Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Stubb and Støre may be one realistic option to talk to Putin for the moment.

“Otherwise,” said Lidén, the Peace Research Institute Oslo researcher, “the process might be left solely to the US, Russia and China, leaving Europe’s position and its seat at the table unclear.”