“I declare once again: at the moment we do not look positively at the application of Sweden,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying in an interview with TRT.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed confidence that Finland and Sweden would join the North Atlantic Alliance, despite the aggravation of relations between Stockholm and Ankara.
Before that, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that Sweden had interrupted the process of joining NATO because of actions with desecration of the Koran.
He expressed hope that agreements on NATO expansion with Ankara could be reached at the summit of the foreign ministries of the alliance countries in Vilnius in July.
On January 21, Rasmus Paludan, leader of the far-right Hard Deal party, burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Previously, he received permission from the authorities to hold the action.