Norway PM: Nobel Committee Independent Amid Trump Row (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I just spoke to the prime minister of Norway. He's the man who looked down at his phone and had a message from President Trump saying, dear Eunice, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace. Now, can you imagine what it felt like for him to look down at his phone and to see that message? Well, now you don't have to imagine because you can actually hear him explain for himself. Here is that moment of my conversation with the prime minister of Norway. What, Sar, went through your mind?

[00:00:31] Speaker 2: Well, I can verify those messages. And you read the first one, which was, you know, on Sunday, President Stubbe and I, who work closely together, we are neighbors in the north. We thought it would be a good start of this week with Davos to have a conversation with the president. We talked to him frequently and the tone is good. And this message you read came back to me after an hour and he actually distributed that to all other NATO leaders as well. On Greenland, you heard my position. I don't need to repeat that. I find it unacceptable to take land from other countries. I believe that the big challenge we have in front of us now is Ukraine. It's a very dramatic war going on with huge ramifications. It's very bad for Ukraine, of course, but also dangerous for Europe, for the US, for world peace. That's really what we need to look into. And this peace price thing, you know, I have repeated, I've told President Trump many times that the noble committee is an independent committee. It is staunchly secretive about the way it works. I am informed about the noble price alongside the rest of the world at 11 o'clock on that day in October. And that's how it is.

[00:01:36] Speaker 1: Here's what he said about you and your role in it yesterday on his way to Davos.

[00:01:40] Speaker 3: Don't let anyone tell you that Norway doesn't control the shots, okay? It's in Norway. I lost a lot of respect for Norway.

[00:01:48] Speaker 1: How do you have a relationship with, deal pragmatically and diplomatically with a person who talks like that?

[00:01:59] Speaker 2: I'm prime minister of my country. As I say, you know, we may be a small country, but we are a proud country and we stand for our values. We stand for our procedures. We stand for our institutions. And President Trump is right. The noble peace price is handed out from Norway, but it is done so by a committee which is selected to do that work. I have respect for world leaders. They are different. They have different temperaments, different priorities, different sensitivities. And if you are prime minister, you have to be diplomatic in the sense that you talk straight, but you're able to deal with people. And the United States is a very important ally for Norway, strong cultural, political ties. And that's my point of departure is for finding good solutions and be very clear in my messages when I need to.