Swedish government

Türkiye will not approve Sweden's bid to join NATO as long as it continues to permit those who burn the Quran, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, repeating Ankara's favorable position for Finland's application to the alliance.

Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday accused Sweden of being complicit in a "hate and racist crime" for failing to prevent weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam and pro-Kurdish groups.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) has harshly slammed Swedish authorities for allowing and just watching the burning of Quran by an ultra-right wing politician in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Sweden is sending dozens of armored vehicles and elite Archer howitzers to Ukraine

The Swedish government announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Thursday, which will include armored infantry fighting vehicles and the Archer artillery system.

The new prime minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, has assured Türkiye that his government will fulfill the commitments outlined in the trilateral agreement for NATO membership in a phone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Sweden's center-right government will fulfil all requirements under a deal with Türkiye to join NATO and will concentrate external relations to its immediate neighborhood while dropping the previous administration's "feminist foreign policy," the country's top diplomat has said.

Türkiye's justice minister on Aug. 18 said Sweden's pledge to extradite a Turkish convict fell far short of Stockholm's commitments under a deal paving the way for its NATO membership bid.

NATO member Türkiye is threatening to freeze Sweden's attempts to join the Western defense alliance unless it extradi-tes dozens of people Ankara accuses of "terrorism."

Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal departed on June 19 for Brussels where they will have discussions over the documents being negotiated between the parties for Sweden's and Finland's applications for NATO membership.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO on May 18 with hopes that the process will be completed as soon as possible.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on June 13 he was "glad" that the Swedish government has confirmed its "readiness to address Turkey's concerns as part of assuming the obligations of future NATO membership."

After decades of military non-alignment, Russia's war in Ukraine pushed Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO in May.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt announced that Norway had officially changed its name (in Norwegian) for Belarus. Authorities in Oslo will now call the country "Belarus" and will not use the hitherto adopted name for the country Hviterussland, which literally means "White Russia".

The news was reported in the Norwegian media.