Jens Stoltenberg

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:

"Our government will continue to provide valuable practical support to Ukraine as long as it is needed." This was stated by Bulgarian Defense Minister Todor Tagarev during the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission yesterday, June 15. According to him, NATO should go beyond the Bucharest decisions and promote relations with Ukraine at a higher strategic level.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made clear once again that NATO-aspirant Sweden has to take concrete steps to join the alliance and stop the activities of the terrorists in the streets of Stockholm, underlining that the Nordic country will unlikely be admitted to NATO at the alliance's key summit in Vilnius in July.

However, ahead of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, which begins on July 11, where confronting Russia will be high on the agenda, Sir Richard Shirreff, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said NATO was not ready for war with Moscow.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made no breakthrough on Sunday in talks about Sweden's membership in the military organization with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with officials from the two countries to meet in just over a week to try to bridge their differences.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior Turkish officials Sunday as pressure mounts on Turkey to lift its objections to Sweden joining the military organization.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said he would visit Ankara "in the near future" to push Sweden's membership bid, after the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"I'm confident of course that Sweden will be a member, and then we're working for that to happen as early as possible," Stoltenberg said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo.