Jens Stoltenberg

US President Joe Biden considers European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to be the best candidate to head NATO next year, reported the British newspaper "Daily Telegraph", quoted by BTA.

In an effort to address Turkish objections to Sweden's accession to NATO, senior officials from Türkiye, Sweden and Finland will gather in Brussels today for a crucial meeting.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will stay in office for another year, the 31-nation military alliance decided on Tuesday.

Stoltenberg said in a tweet that he is "honored by NATO Allies' decision to extend my term as Secretary General until 1 October 2024."

Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov stated that next year Bulgaria will achieve its goal of 2 percent of GDP for defense. In a joint briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Alliance headquarters, he stressed:

The EU's top diplomat warned Thursday that a "weaker" Russian President Vladimir Putin would pose a "greater danger" after Wagner's aborted mutiny sparked the largest political crisis in decades in the nuclear-armed country.

"A weaker Putin is a greater danger. So we have to be very much aware of the consequences," Josep Borrell said ahead of a gathering of EU leaders in Brussels.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will be key figures at Thursday's European Union summit, underscoring the importance the 27 EU leaders attach to protecting their eastern flank from Russian aggression and beefing up Ukraine's defense capabilities.

Belarus welcomed the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday following an aborted rebellion, as NATO warned it was ready to defend against "Moscow or Minsk".

Sweden must no longer allow the demonstrations and activities by the PKK terror organization's members and sympathizers on its soils if it wants to join NATO, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told the NATO chief with just weeks left to go to the critical alliance summit in Vilnius.

Türkiye's top defense official held separate talks on June 16 with his Dutch and U.S. counterparts on the sidelines of a NATO meeting, the Turkish National Defense Ministry announced. 

Day 478 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours: