NATO

The Ukraine war has spurred the most profound crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Biden had cautioned last year that a direct clash between NATO and Russia could lead to World War Three.

Speaking in Parliament to open the Autumn session, the Hungarian leader said on Monday: "There is no urgency from the government to push for support regarding Sweden's NATO accession, and Sweden's security is not under threat."

He made the remark during a public lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Ukrinform reported on Friday.

"We will follow the (implementation of) promises and guarantees given by the Swedish side... and take action according to the steps Sweden takes," Erdogan told reporters on his flight back to Turkey on Friday, according to the state-run TRT broadcaster. "It will be in Sweden's favour if the Nordic country takes concrete steps in the fight against terrorist organisations and the extradition of terrorists," the President noted.

In a statement published on Thursday on its website, the Iranian Embassy to Brussels responded to a statement by the NATO leaders at a summit in Lithuania on Tuesday accusing Iran of providing Russia with military support against Ukraine and expressing "concern about Iran's escalation of its nuclear programme".

"Our parliament will... make the right decision in line with the interests of our country," the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added on Thursday when returning from the NATO summit held in Lithuania's capital Vilnius on July 11-12. Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in February 2022.

During the summit concluding on Wednesday, NATO adopted its "most comprehensive defence plans since the end of the Cold War" and endorsed a new defence production action plan. Under the new plans, NATO aims to have 300,000 troops fully ready for action, Xinhua news agency reported.  

The G7 announcement came after the military alliance said that Ukraine could join the NATO only "when allies agree and conditions are met", the BBC reported. In a statement, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the arrangement, which will defence equipment, training and intelligence sharing, will send a "strong signal" to Russian President Putin.

NATO also wants its member states to agree on "a more ambitious" defence investment pledge to spend a minimum of two per cent of their GDP annually on defence. After "nine consecutive years of increased defence spending" since 2014, only 11 of the alliance's 31 members have reached or exceeded this target.

Speaking at a press conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that the allies have agreed on a package of three elements to "bring Ukraine closer to NATO". However, he clarified that an invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance will be issued "when allies agree and conditions are met".