Sweden has officially become the 32nd member of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the document formalizing Stockholm’s accession to the bloc entered into force on Thursday. The accession ceremony will be held in Washington, where Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will submit his country’s accession documents to US …
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Sweden’s top officials have urged their people to prepare for a possible war, amid the rising tensions with Russia. The ministers made their statement at the multi-day Folk och Forsvar National Conference in Salen. In his speech on Sunday, Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom hailed his country’s expected membership in the …
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh claimed on Thursday that US President Joe Biden offered his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan more than $11 billion in IMF assistance to ratify Sweden’s bid to join the NATO bloc. In an article posted to his Substack account, Hersh wrote that he had been …
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Sweden does not intend to provide Ukraine with its state-of-the-art Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets, Defense Minister Pol Jonson said on Sunday. Kiev had previously said that it would like to receive modern aircraft from its Western backers, including Stockholm. Speaking at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, …
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Per Wastberg, who co-founded the Swedish branch of Amnesty International, resigned from the organization on Wednesday. The Swedish activist said his departure was due to Amnesty’s report about the conflict in Ukraine, and that the organization has gone beyond its original mandate to advocate for political prisoners. “I have been …
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Both Finland and Sweden have taken one step closer to becoming full-fledged members of NATO after the ambassadors from all 30 member states of the US-led bloc signed accession protocols for the two Nordic countries on Tuesday. The accession ceremony was held at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where …
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Turkey will support inviting Finland and Sweden into NATO at the alliance’s upcoming summit in Spain, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto announced on Tuesday after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. The three countries signed a memorandum of understanding at the meeting, …
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said it’s uncertain whether the military alliance will be able to overcome Turkey’s opposition to membership for Finland and Sweden. The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led bloc in May, voicing concerns over their security amid Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. NATO …
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Finland will not join the US-led NATO bloc without Sweden should the latter run into an impasse on its ascension path, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has said. The official made the remarks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Helsinki on Sunday. “I say that …
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Following talks in Ankara on Wednesday, Turkish government spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters that his government would not allow Finland and Sweden into the NATO alliance until Turkey’s “concrete” security concerns regarding terrorism and sanctions are met. Kalin added that Ankara will not rush to an agreement before NATO’s next …
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