NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has signed a one-year contract extension, after months seeking a consensus replacement candidate failed to bear fruit. The announcement comes a week before a NATO leaders summit.

On the eve of next week's NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told FRANCE 24 he was confident an agreement could be forged to bring Ukraine closer to NATO. In addition to providing practical support and creating a Ukraine-NATO council, he said that a text was being drafted to chart a way forward for Ukraine's future membership in the Atlantic Alliance.

Kyiv has been asking Germany to help pave the way for Ukraine to join NATO. A German think tank has mapped out a plan for Ukraine's accession to the alliance.

The military alliance wants to assure Kyiv once again that it can join — one day, at least. Could a more concrete date emerge in Vilnius? Bernd Riegert looks at the questions facing NATO ahead of the summit.

Sweden is keen to join the alliance, but Erdogan has taken a dim view over Stockholm's attitude to pro-Kurdish groups, but PM Ulf Kristersson is hoping to change the Turkish president's mind.

Turkey has long sought the purchase of 40 F-16s from the US, and fresh talks with Washington come after Ankara ended its opposition to Sweden's NATO membership.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

US President Joe Biden has met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III while on his way to a NATO summit. In separate comments on Sunday, Biden said that Ukraine was not ready for NATO membership.

NATO's 31 members are meeting in Lithuania's capital for a summit where they will discuss a new financial commitment to the Alliance.

NATO members have said they want Ukraine in the alliance when the time is right, as Turkey drops its opposition to Swedish accession on day one of two-day summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

After a long and bitter process that lasted more than a year, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to back Stockholm's application to NATO. Why did he change his mind?

G7 leaders, and the EU, set out an open framework for security guarantees for Ukraine as the NATO summit wraps up and US President Joe Biden hailed the alliance's unity.