Foreign relations of Sweden

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told NATO counterparts on Tuesday he was working hard on Sweden's NATO ratification which is currently being debated by the Turkish parliament and provided a likely timeline of before year-end for the Nordic country to formally join the alliance, a senior State Department official said.

Sweden said on Aug. 8 that it was working to assist a Swedish-Turkish journalist detained in Spain after Ankara issued an international arrest warrant over alleged terrorism.

Hamza Yalçın was detained on Aug. 3 at Barcelona's El Prat airport and is being held while a court decides whether to extradite him or not, Spanish police told AFP.

The European Union hit out May 30 at a travel ban imposed by Russia on 89 European citizens -- many of whom are outspoken Kremlin critics -- calling it "totally arbitrary and unjustified".

BELGRADE - The Swedish government has adopted a new results strategy for development cooperation with Serbia for the next seven-year period 2014-2020, whose main purpose is to assist in Serbia's EU approximation, the Swedish Embassy in Serbia released in a statement.