The colonel to the president: “Let us lions stick together”

With that greeting, Colonel Fredrik Herlitz handed over a coat of arms as a memorial gift from Älvsborg’s amphibious regiment to Alexander Stubb, who ended his first state visit in Gothenburg just under two months after he took office as president of the republic.

Here, to the port of Gothenburg, he wanted to bring his wife, the five-lingual lawyer Suzanne Innes-Stubb, to emphasize how it plays a tangible security policy role also for Finland as the Nordic’s major supply hub.

Colonel Fredrik Herlitz took the opportunity to make a connection with the gift, now that Sweden and Finland belong to the same NATO security team, precisely the regiment’s coat of arms was a crowned lion of gold with a sword in the right front paw; a similar one is found in the Finnish national coat of arms.

After Colonel Herlitz in a meeting room explained to the two heads of state, with ministers Tobias Billström, Andreas Carlson and Carl-Oskar Bohlin nearby, what his soldiers can and must do to protect the port, a display of weapons awaited.

Among them naval target robot 17 that Ukraine thus received and used in the naval war against Russia. And then the planned attack on the rocks next to Käringberget and with Nya Älvsborg’s fortress as background.

While Alexander Stubb and Suzanne Innes-Stubb left the colonel and the soldiers and got into the presidential car to depart for Gothenburg’s art museum for the traditional farewell reception “in honor of the royal couple” as it says in the protocol, King Carl XVI Gustaf answered DN’s question about how the two-day state visit has been in one word.

– Nice!

About the same way it sounded when the new president answered the questions of the large group of accompanying Finnish journalists inside the art museum.

– Nice!

– It was a state visit with a relaxed and familiar young crowd, said Stubb, and added that “Sweden’s king has been in service for a long time and has an enormous bank of experience, and a queen who is historically knowledgeable”.

Finnish media were, in addition to first lady Suzanne Innes-Stubb’s choice of clothing and jewellery, perhaps mainly interested in how Alexander Stubb views the distribution of power between the president and the prime minister back home.

– As long as the prime minister receives sufficient information about NATO and the president receives sufficient information about the EU, said Stubb somewhat jokingly, he saw no problem.

But what a 54-year-old Suzanne Innes-Stubb, a highly educated lawyer in Great Britain where she is also a citizen, as well as in Belgium, had experienced it, the media was able to get her answer.

During all of Tuesday’s program points in Stockholm, with ceremonies at the palace, visits to the Riksdag House, Sven-Harry’s art museum, at Sätraskolan, during the business seminar at the Grand Hotel, at the gala dinner at the palace and in Gothenburg on Wednesday at the University of Gothenburg and lunch at the governor’s residence, left she talking to her husband.

That did not stop the Finnish media from telling many stories about the fact that she received the Grand Cross of the Order of the North Star from the king – while her husband received Sweden’s highest award, the Order of the Seraphim.

But also that she demonstrated Finnish design in various ways, such as by wearing goldsmith Robert Tarkkanen’s jewelry with 127 diamonds and 39 gold bracelets worth around a million during the gala dinner, and that the Finnish-designed gold-colored dress at the castle on Wednesday was replaced with a pantsuit from the Helsinki brand Jeans & Towels.

But it has also been noted in the Finnish media that when it comes to security policy, President Stubb has a different way of talking compared to the representative Sauli Niinistö.

For example, the public service company Yles Magnus Swanljung Nordenkorrespondent latched onto the fact that Stubb ended the press conference with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Rosenbad with the words “calm pucks!”.

“Stubb is clear about that Finland’s foreign and security policy does not need to take Russia into account at all,” writes Swanljung. But he also claims: “One thing has become clear during Stubb’s state visit. In Sweden, Stubbs’ foreign policy analysis is listened to willingly and carefully.”

It became apparent in Gothenburg how eagerly the Swedes wanted to tell and show their talents. It was 14:09 when the amphibious regiment’s guard boat Ärlig docked at the quay and the two heads of state disembarked.

And as if on command, the gray clouds slipped away and the sky above them shone in blue and white.