(VOVWORLD) - Sweden's Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Saturday that the country's application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been halted.
Speaking to Expressen, Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that some events occurred in the past weeks have brought the process to a temporary halt. He said that the Swedish government will focus investment in the energy sector and need more time and effort to move forward again.
During a protest near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on January 21, Swedish right-wing politician Stram Kurs Rasmus Paludan, an anti-immigrant, burned a copy of the Koran.
Reacting to the incident, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Sweden would not receive Ankara's support to join NATO.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last May and their applications need approval of all 30 NATO member countries.