Stoltenberg

Sweden failed on Thursday to convince Turkey to lift its block on Stockholm's path to NATO membership, and the issue will now go to a meeting of the Turkish and Swedish leaders next week.

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:

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. 

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.

NATO will deploy 700 more troops to Kosovo, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today, a day after 30 NATO soldiers and 52 protesters were injured in clashes, Reuters reported.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv. This is his first visit to Ukraine since the Russian aggression began and is being read as a clear sign of solidarity ahead of preparations for a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Stoltenberg honored the memory of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers and inspected destroyed Russian weapons in the center of Kyiv.

Finland officially became NATO's 31st member after the country's foreign minister signed the accession document and handed it over to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The signature was the last step of the procedure and was signed in Brussels.

Alamy Photo

Finland's flag will be hoisted outside NATO headquarters on Tuesday when it becomes the 31st member of the Western alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member," Stoltenberg told reporters on the eve of a historic meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Turkey's parliament on Thursday ratified Finland's application to join NATO, lifting the last hurdle in the way of the Nordic country's long-delayed accession into the Western military alliance.

All 276 lawmakers present voted in favor of Finland's bid, days after Hungary's parliament also endorsed Helsinki's accession.