mr billstrom, sweden has, for many months now, had its request in to become a full—fledged member of nato. you applied alongside finland. finland got in, in april. sweden still isn't in. how frustrated are you? well, i have to say that one should stay calm and join nato, as it says on the, you know... ..in the writing. i have to say that i think that, when all is said and done, the summit in vilnius with nato was a great success. we got a clear statement between turkiye, between sweden, and between nato that we will move forward, and that turkiye will now finally deliver our document of ratification to its grand national assembly in october, once the summer vacation is ended. and then the ratification will start. and we feel confident that this is going to happen on part of a swedish government. there was a clear handshake between the president of turkiye, the prime minister of sweden, and the secretary general of nato. well, you say you're very sure — it seems to me that mr erdogan, in turkey, has been playing sweden quite successfully, and he did say only a few weeks ago that "the final decision rests with the parliament", and that sweden needed to take more steps to be sure of approval. so he hasn't actually stopped playing his games yet, has he? but these messages, which has been forthcoming from ankara ever since we started this process in 2022, is, i think, more aimed at a domestic audience than a foreign one. and we have to take this into account, that many of the things which are being said and done by ministers and representatives of the turkish government has this background. we feel very confident with what happened in vilnius — after all, vilnius also changed things because, at the summit in madrid, in 2022, the trilateral memorandum, which was then signed between turkiye, finland, and sweden, meant that we undertook to do things, from the part of the swedish government. in the statement coming out from vilnius, turkiye will get things which are important to them — most notably, of course, the establishment of an anti—terrorist coordinator. well, let me stop you there and ask you, very frankly, do you feel absolutely sure that your appeasement policy toward turkey is justified ? all of the different things you've done because mr erdogan asked for them — hardening your anti—terrorism laws, dropping an arms export embargo on turkey, and indeed even extraditing a small number of people to turkey that the turkish government wanted — it smacks of appeasement. do you think it's justified? well, i would like to look at it from the other side. as a matter of fact, this process from 2022, and the signing of the trilateral memorandum in madrid and onwards, have shown and learned us a few things, as well. for instance, that the relationship between the representative of the pkk in our country and organised crime is worse than what we thought, and that the collaboration and cooperation between turkish agencies and swedish agencies have been good in this regard. so i also see this process as something positive for us. and with the establishment of a security compact also laid down in the statement of vilnius, we are moving ahead. we would like to continue the cooperation with turkiye also after sweden has been ratified and joined nato. there is hungary, of course, as well, because they've, for many months, put obstacles in the way of your membership. do you think the swedish people will be entirely comfortable joining a club which gives a right of veto to leaders like recep tayyip erdogan and viktor orban? well, first of all, hungary agreed to give sweden the status as invitee to nato at the summit in madrid in 2022 without any preconditions. and they haven't said anything else, and that they are going to ratify us as soon as turkiye starts the ratification process. "we won't be the last," to quote prime minister viktor orban. so my government feels very sure about this. and yes, we do feel safe and sure when it comes to nato, becausejoining nato will improve security in sweden in a situation where we are facing the gravest security situation in europe since the end of the second world war. not everything about nato is perfect, and of course, the states joining — states making up nato sometimes have different ideas. but we have to take this into account that it is, after all, a security alliance. and we aim to be a provider to that security alliance once we have joined the organisation. but my point is, it's a security alliance that entirely rests on unanimity to get things done, including your own membership application. and i'm very mindful of things that people in your own government have said, for example, about viktor orban leading "a xenophobic and nationalist government" — that direct quote from johan pehrson, who just happens to be a minister in your government. i mean, if you really feel that orban is leading a xenophobic, nationalist government, are you sure you want to be alongside him? well, first of all, the support forjoining nato stands, i think, approximately at 77% of the swedish population. that is very, very high. the support forjoining nato is six out of eight parties in the swedish parliament with a very, very broad majority. the bill to join nato was voted through parliament this spring, with only two exceptions, two parties that didn't vote in favour. ifeel very sure, as foreign minister representing sweden, that we have a broad support among the population and in parliament in favour of doing this, because the swedish people knows that in this time and age, when we are making the most fundamental change of our security and foreign policy for 200 years — changing our position from being a non—aligned, non—military—aligned country to one which is going tojoin a military alliance — that doesn't come very lightly. we do this in a time which is dire for all of us. so let's talk about the security challenges. i mean, viktor 0rban says that there needs to be peace now. he says he's not on russia's side, nor is he on ukraine's side, he's between the two, and that ukraine's determination to keep on fighting is "a grave mistake which is damaging the ukrainian people". i assume you do not share that view? because sweden has actually committed quite significant weaponry to ukraine, and continues to do so. very true, and during the swedish presidency this spring, when we were holding the presidency of the eu, we made significant contributions, seeing to it that we could get through sanctions packages against russia through, seeing to it that we, the eu, could provide ukraine with one million artillery shells, etc. also seeing to it that ukraine's reform process, which is going to lead it in favour of eu accession, is moving forward. we're doing this and, yes, we are aware of the attitude of hungary — and yet, hungary could not block this progression of the process forward. this is the attitude... let me ask you specifically, in terms of sweden's contributions — you see, of course, just as we all do, the slow progress of the ukrainian counteroffensive, and the fact that the ukrainians keep insisting they need more weaponry, they need fighter aircraft, apart from anything else they say, and sweden happens to have a rather effective smallerfighter, the gripen fighter. you apparently have made a decision already to train ukrainian pilots in flying the gripen. when are you going to actually supply the aircraft to kyiv? well, the prime minister, ulf kristersson, was very clear when president zelensky visited sweden the other week, that, as long as we have not been... become a member of nato, we are not in a position to change this policy when it comes to the gripen air fighters. however, this is not the final say. once we havejoined nato, we might look at things from a different angle. but at present, we need those airfighters in order to have an air force which is up to the job of protecting sweden, and sweden's border, at the very crucial moment in time. but why on earth are you training ukrainian pilots to fly the gripen if you'll not guarantee you'll give some of these fighters to the ukrainians? well, first of all, we have to see if our nato membership comes through, but there is no reason in wasting any time with this — as we have said, the possibility is an open one. but, to make the final decision, we need to have nato membership for sweden first. mm. just one final thought on nato. you know, because the russians have already made it plain that once you are fully ratified as a nato member state, the russians will regard you as "an enemy". mr shoigu, the defence minister in moscow, has already talked about how russia is going to beef up its land and naval forces in north—west europe and in the baltic. do you think sweden is really prepared for what is about to come over the next decade, in terms of a new russian focus on combating your presence as a nato member across the baltic sea from russia? yes, we are. we have, during our time as a non—military—aligned country, built up quite extensive powers when it comes to both the air force and naval powers. we willjoin nato with those forces in mind and, together with all the nordic countries, we will have a quite substantial amount of airfighters. and we also believe that joining nato will enable us to be a security provider to the organisation, but also together with all the other states — bar russia around the baltic sea — we will contribute to the security of this part of the world. you should also take into account that, once sweden hasjoined nato, all states with the coastline around the baltic sea, bar russia, will be nato members, making the baltic sea virtually a nato lake. hmm, let's talk about something else, which is not directly your responsibility as foreign minister, but no doubt you've had to wrestle with in recent months, because it affects sweden's relations with many countries around the world, particularly muslim nations, and particularly countries in the arab world — and that is the series of incidents we've seen with qurans being burned on the streets of stockholm and other cities in sweden. how concerned are you that what has happened has massively damaged sweden's relationships with the muslim world, and could lead to grave security threats inside your country? well, it has certainly had already a serious impact, and we are well aware of that, on the part of the government. the general director of the swedish security services raised the level of terror threats from three to four, on a five—level scale the other week. and this is something which, of course, has an impact on the swedish society. however, we are also trying to counter this also by looking into our relationship with the 0ic — the organisation of islamic cooperation — and also having dialogue and discussions under way. i'm looking forward to the opening of the un general assembly in new york, which will provide us with a lot of opportunities to talk with representatives of these states. all in all, i have to say that sweden has nothing to be ashamed of. we have offered, you know, shelter to many people with the muslim faith, making no discrimination between sunni and shia. and we are also a country which believes in various freedoms — freedom of expression, but also freedom of religion. and many people who have arrived in sweden feels that they can exercise their rights when it comes to religion in a way which isn't... yeah, but this isn't really about freedom of religion, is it? it's about freedom, it seems, to express hate on the streets of stockholm. for example, the police did nothing to stop an individual who'd notified them that he was going to burn a quran in front of stockholm's main mosque. and the police let him go ahead and do it. now, many muslims in countries all across the muslim world, but particularly in the middle east, saw that as a massive affront. going back to mr erdogan in turkey, he said, "it was nothing but arrogance. "insulting muslims," he said, "is not freedom of thought. isn't it time that sweden clamped down on these expressions of hate? well, let me be clear — the government has been very, very clear in its statements that the act of — is despicable, you know, that has been committed when it comes to the burning of holy scriptures. but that's one side of the coin. another one is that we are now bringing forward an inquiry into the public order act in order to provide the police with tools to take into account national security when they give permits for demonstrations. but even if that inquiry will have a final report which will lead to a bill being proposed to parliament to change the public order act, sweden will still be a country where you will have an opportunity to criticise religion — even in a way which could be, you know, viewed as bad by believers. crosstalk. so you think denmark got it wrong, foreign minister? denmark has since — there were provocative acts of a similar sort in denmark — has decided to make burning religious texts a criminal offence. have they got it wrong? no, but they approach the subject from a different angle. we have a system in sweden which works with permits. that's not the case in denmark. and since they don't work with the same kind of legislative challenges, they do it differently. we believe, from our point of view, that bringing forward this inquiry into the public order act is the right one because we have identified a gap in our legislation where the police, under the instrument of government, could, under certain circumstances, say no in, let's say, a case of war or warfare to public demonstrations, but they can't do it in this situation and that has led to the absurd situation that you can say no to a demonstration when you believe that the event could be a traffic disturbance, but not when there's a threat against national security. just a thought, which goes back to our discussion about russia. crosstalk. you have a psychological defence agency, i believe, a part of the swedish ministry of defence. and that agency is pointing a finger directly at moscow, claiming that moscow has been involved in fomenting some of this trouble, including the quran burning. to quote the agency's director of operations, "russian activities have been on a level that we have "never seen before". well, you're the foreign minister, so what have you said to the russians and what are you going to do about what you say the russians are doing? well, i prefer to do things, rather than to talk about them. and you're quite right — this authority, when it comes to psychological defence that you're quoting, has registered over one million sharings on social media when it comes to the burning of the quran. and it's quite clear that this is an operation where different state actors, and actors which are close to the state, tries to create division and sow division between muslims and non—muslims. my message has been very clear as a representative of the swedish government — we must not allow them to succeed. and we are working with different instruments — diplomacy, dialogue, the legislative changes that i — we have already spoken about — and we will continue to do so for a foreseeable future. crosstalk. but to be clear, you haven't used the word "russia". to be clear, is russia, in your view, conducting cyber warfare and misinformation campaigns against sweden right now? yes, as the authority for psychological defence has already observed, they have done more than one million sharings on social media of the burning of the quran, and you can see very clearly that they are operating a policy of this kind. so, i'm totally, you know, of the view that there is a psychological operation under way. let me turn to another matter, which certainly affects sweden's reputation in the wider world. these are some amazing figures. since 2018, there've been almost 500 bombings in sweden. it has a population of ten million but the number of shootings represents the highest per capita number of deadly shootings in the whole of europe. in one evening alone, on 30 august, police reported four explosions injust one hour. what on earth is going on in your country to make it such a hub of terrible violence? well, what we can see is a surge of organised crime which has led to this situation occurring and the government is now trying to counter it, both with the police and social authorities working in a more methodical way and also, by giving the police different tools which they haven't had before. we have to understand also that sweden hasn't really been prepared to the surge of organised crime which i spoke about mainly, i think, because we have operated under different circumstances, and we can now see that our outside—ship and lack of integration, in combination with trade of narcotics and organised crime, is creating this very, very toxic mixture. however, the government feels confident that the policy which is under way, and which means that different ministries and different authorities will cooperate more closely, will have effect. but there is no quick fix in this, either. crosstalk. we are... yeah, you've just referred to integration — a failure of integration being a part of the reason for this surge in violence, which implicitly is telling us that you believe that there is a direct causal link between the violent crime wave and migration. now, that is very much a link made by the far—right sweden democrats party, which is propping up your governing coalition. so, are you basically buying the rhetoric of the far—right now? well, this view that there's a link between failed integration and organised crime is voiced by parties from all over the spectrum. there is no monopoly for one single party to that view. that has been said most recently in last year's general election campaign by many parties. the difference might be how we tackle this and my government, and the policy which we operate, aims to both see to it that we can crush organised crime in a methodical way and also that we see to it that we deal with the failed integration and the consequences both in labour market and education systems. and we have to do both at the same time, and we have to do it in a balanced way. how far are you going to go? jimmie akesson, the long—time leader of the far—right sweden democrats says there must be a paradigm shift in sweden regarding immigration and integration policy. he's even, in the last few months, talked about the fact that if sweden doesn't get opt—outs from various eu rules which limit its ability to change its immigration laws, sweden must consider leaving the european union. you're foreign minister — do you agree with him? no, i do not. i don't think that this is about leaving the european union, and we have an agreement which upon this government rests signed by four parties — the moderate party, my own party, the christian democrats, the liberals, and the sweden democrats. and in that document, it is said very clearly what we will do when it comes to migration and integration, paragraph by paragraph. and we are going to stick to this document — it is open for everybody to read — but there is nothing in this about leaving the eu, i can assure you, and this is not a policy by the government, either. this is about questions related to migration, yes, because we need to change migration regulation as well, and that is under way. and it is also about questions of integration connected to labour — the labour market, and language training and also social insurance systems, and that also will have to change. and there is a policy under way for that, as well. but the world has always admired sweden, foreign minister, for its progressive policies, for its determination to, for example, rehabilitate prisoners, to be an open country to those in need. are you suggesting to me that all of that will have to change? we've already seen the beginnings of it — much tighter immigration rules when it comes to the unification of families, discussion of whether sweden can deport would—be migrants to third countries. is sweden going to fundamentally change? well, when it comes to migration policy, i feel that we should have changed a long time ago because the world has also changed. but at the end of the day, we have to face the facts. things are changing in our society, partly because of migration and integration. also partly because, for an example, when it comes to organised crime, we have to operate systems when it comes to young people and teenagers who commit crime in a different way. we have to understand that we can't do it the old way — that doesn't work any more. when you have kids as young as 11, i2 committing crimes, which are very, very rough indeed, you have to tackle it in a different way. i believe that you have to work with the times and we have to understand also that sweden has to change with times. tobias billstrom, we have to end there but thank you very much for joining me on hardtalk. thank you very much. morning, all. a stormy end to our weekend of what has been quite a remarkable week of weatherjust passed. on sunday, we saw highs of 33 degrees yet again so that, coupled with last week's temperatures, saw seven consecutive days where we've seen 30 degrees or more — a record for september. but our week ahead is certainly going to see a change. yes, we'll have some warmth on monday but a noticeable, fresher feel for all of us. these are our maximum temperatures expected as we go through the week ahead, so low 20s quite widely. we've got a weather front, then, still pushing in from the north. it's a cold front and this will gradually introduce the change to the weather story. eventually, that front is going to push its way steadily south and the wind direction swing around to more of a north—westerly. cooler, fresher air tucking in behind. so, to begin with,10 or 11 degrees in the north—west of the great glen. a mild start once again for england and wales — still feeling quite humid out there. and this is where we'll see the best of the sunshine and the warmth on monday. a showery band of rain through northern england and north wales. cloudy and sunny spells and scattered showers following in behind. fresher here but ahead of that front, we're still likely to see temperatures peaking at 27 degrees — that's 80 fahrenheit. now, as we move out of monday into tuesday, that weather front is still there and it's still meandering its way slowly south and east, taking its time in doing so. ahead of the front is where we'll keep the milder conditions, so first thing on tuesday morning, 16 degrees. fresher behind single figures for scotland and northern ireland. the front will gradually sink its way south. it could bring some much needed rain, actually, across the midlands, east anglia and south east england. behind it, some sunnier spells and clearer conditions. so, we're looking at 13—18 degrees here. highest values, if we're lucky, of around 22 celsius. then, as we move out of tuesday, finally, that frontal system eases away. high pressure is set to build and keep things quite quiet. that means a chilly start potentially in the far north—east on wednesday morning. maybe temperatures low enough for a touch of frost in sheltered glens of scotland. but it will lead to a largely fine, bright day on wednesday. noticeably fresher with showers for the end of the week. live from london, this is bbc news. morocco�*s race against time to find survivors buried in rubble from friday's earthquake. after weeks of controversy, luis rubiales resigns as president of the spanish football federation. joe biden denies the us is attempting to stem china's international influence after signing a new deal with vietnam. we are live in hanoi as these two historical forces cement their friendship two historical forces cement theirfriendship and do two historical forces cement their friendship and do deals on everything from semiconductors to rare earth minerals. president biden says this is not about containing china. hello, i'm mark lobell. rescuers have stepped up their efforts to find survivors of friday's earthquake in morocco, which has killed more than 2100 people. the moroccan government says it has accepted aid from four