An afternoon tea meeting with a president is not the sort of invitation you get every day as a foreign correspondent.

But that is exactly where I found myself on Tuesday afternoon in Finland's capital, Helsinki — having a cup of tea and some tiny pastries over a chat with President Alexander Stubb.

I was on assignment in Finland when I received a surprise invitation to join a small group of journalists from publications in Kyiv, Brussels, London, Madrid and Rome for the 45-minute meeting.

After passing security checks, we took our seats around the long, wooden dining table at Stubb's residence, surrounded by an eclectic mix of Finnish art on one side, and long, glass windows looking out to pine trees and the local neighbourhood on the other.

The conversation traversed geopolitics and g

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