SAULI NIINISTO

The Finnish president says he doesn’t think Sweden will end up in a vulnerable security situation although neighboring Finland is likely to join NATO first.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his government will move forward with ratifying Finland’s NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that his country may soon ratify Finland’s application to join NATO.

The Finnish president said in an interview published Saturday that he wants Finland and Sweden to be admitted into NATO as full members no later than by the military alliance’s summit in Lithuania in July.

Finland’s foreign minister has suggested that the country may consider joining NATO without neighboring Sweden if Turkey continues to block their joint bid to enter the military alliance.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell played a pivotal role in the Senate ratifying NATO membership for Sweden and Finland.

Finland’s Parliament has passed amended legislation on border security that allows for the closure of crossing points with Russia.

Just two days after agreeing to lift deal-breaking objections to Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession, Turkey’s leader has threatened that Ankara could still block the process if the two countries fail to fully meet his expectations.

When the leaders of Finland, Sweden and Turkey met with NATO’s chief this week, some remained pessimistic the meeting would lessen Turkey’s objections to the Nordic pair’s historic request to join NATO.

Turkey has agreed to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders’ summit in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades triggered by the war in Ukraine.

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance wants to increase the strength of its rapid reaction forces from the current 40,000 to over 300,000.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed his objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO with the two Nordic countries’ leaders.

President Joe Biden is forcefully supporting the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO despite objections from Turkey.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he's in “intense contacts” with Russia and other countries to stop escalating global hunger exacerbated by the war in Ukraine by allowing the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensuring Russian food and fertilizers have unrestricted access to world markets.

Sweden and Finland have pushed ahead with their bids to join NATO even as Turkey insists it won’t let the previously nonaligned Nordic countries into the alliance because of their alleged support for Kurdish militants.

Ukrainian officials say the regiment that doggedly defended a steel mill as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the port city of Mariupol has completed its mission.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a delegation of GOP senators are due to visit Helsinki on Monday for talks with Finland’s president as the previously neutral Nordic nation bordering Russia seeks NATO membership.

Nearly three months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned his Finnish counterpart that relations between the two neighbors could be “negatively affected” if Finland follows through with plans to apply for NATO membership.

Ukrainian and British officials say Russia suffered heavy losses when Ukrainian forces destroyed the pontoon bridge enemy troops were using to try to cross a river.

Finland’s leaders say they’re in favor of applying for NATO membership “without delay.”.

Britain has signed a security assurance with Sweden which like its neighbor Finland is pondering whether to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pledging to “bolster military ties” in the event of a crisis and support both countries should they come under attack.

Key decision-makers in non-aligned Finland and Sweden are set to announce their positions on NATO membership this week.

With its ground troops forced to pull back in Ukraine and regroup, and its Black Sea flagship sunk, Russia’s military failings are mounting.

At the Academy Awards in Los Angles Sunday night, attendees expressed support for Ukraine by going silent for 30 seconds.

President Joe Biden has met with Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto with the Finns at a crossroads: Should they move closer to the rest of Europe and the West by trying to join NATO as Russia pummels Ukraine.

Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO — until now.

Finland and Sweden have brushed off warnings from neighboring Russia that their possible joining NATO would trigger “serious military-political consequences” from Moscow.

New Zealand’s government summoned Russian Ambassador Georgii Zuev to meet Wednesday with top diplomatic officials who are urging Russia to return to diplomatic negotiations over Ukraine.

HELSINKI – The United States and Russia will hold a round of nuclear arms control talks in the Finland’s capital, Helsinki, on Monday to follow up on negotiations in Austria this summer, the Finnish president’s office said. The office said nuclear arms negotiators from Washington and Moscow met a previous time in Finland in 2017. “Finland welcomes the negotiators, this time (U.S.) Ambassador (Marshall) Billingslea and (Russian) Deputy Foreign Minister (Sergei) Ryabkov,” the statement said, adding that Niinisto would meet both representatives after the talks. The talks are aimed at producing a new agreement to replace the New START treaty that expires in February — the last remaining pact constraining the arsenals of the world’s two major nuclear powers. According to Russian news agency TASS, the previous round of consultations between Billingslea and Ryabkov were held in Vienna on Aug. 17-18.

Member state flags fly outside the United Nations headquarters during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. This year's annual gathering of world leaders at U.N. headquarters will be almost entirely "virtual." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)TANZANIA – World leaders gathering remotely Wednesday criticized a haphazard global response to a microscopic virus that has unleashed economic havoc and taken nearly 1 million lives in its march across the globe. In the words of Kazakhstan’s president, it was “a critical collapse of global cooperation.”“Our world has been turned upside down,” said Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo. Switzerland's President Simonetta Sommaruga, one of the few women leaders to speak, said the pandemic “has caused untold suffering in the world," with the most vulnerable hit hardest.