US President Donald Trump said that he is tightening the screws on Russia alongside NATO allies to secure a long-elusive deal to end the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.
"We are stepping up the pressure. We're stepping it up together. We're all stepping it up. NATO has been great," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he hosted Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Thursday.
"We're selling a lot of weapons to NATO, and that's going, I guess, to Ukraine for the most part. That's up to them, but they're buying weapons from the US. We make the greatest weapons in the world."
Trump lauded Washington's ongoing cooperation with Helsinki, pointing to a deal on joint production of 11 icebreaker ships, seven of which will be built in the US.
"We negotiated a pretty tough price, I think, but I assume you're going to do very well, but what you're doing is you're going to be teaching us about the icebreaker business," he told Stubb.
"They sort of have almost a monopoly on icebreakers. If you think about it, nobody makes them like Finland. I've heard that for a long time. So, we're going to have a total of 11."
Stubb said the agreement bolsters bilateral relations and is expected to result in the delivery of the first ship in 2028.
He said he was confident that Trump would be able to push through a deal on Ukraine following the Gaza deal between Israel and Hamas.
"I think this one will be the next big one," Stubb told reporters.
'Speak to Spain'
While Trump had effusive praise for Finland and NATO generally, he singled out Spain for its rejection of a 5 percent NATO defence spending guideline that he pushed the alliance to adopt, suggesting that the western European nation should be expelled from the group.
"Spain is the one that didn't do it. And so, I think you people are gonna have to start speaking to Spain. The only one that didn't do it, the only NATO country that didn't do it is Spain, and you'll figure what that's all about," he said.
"They're doing well, too. You know, I think because of a lot of the things we've done, they're doing fine. They have no excuse, not this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly," he added.
