Russia said on Monday that the West should have no illusions that Moscow will simply put up with the Nordic expansion of the US-led Nato military alliance to include Sweden and Finland, casting the move as a mistake that would stoke military tension.

Finland will apply for Nato membership, the Nordic country's president and prime minister announced Sunday, as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said Nato would defend "every inch" of members' territory but emphasized the alliance was defensive, as foreign ministers resisted Ukrainian calls for a no-fly zone to battle the Russian invasion.

Russia said on Tuesday some of its troops were returning to base after exercises near Ukraine and it mocked repeated Western warnings about a looming invasion, but NATO said it had yet to see any evidence of de-escalation.

Nato has no plans to deploy combat troops to non-Nato member Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday.

Nato will confront China's military ambitions for the first time and designate Beijing as presenting "systemic challenges", according to a copy of a summit communique seen by Reuters and set for release later on Monday.

If the US military were a nation state, it would be the world's 47th largest emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gases, a 2019 study found.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the forced landing of a passenger flight by Belarus amounted to state hijacking and called for both an urgent international investigation and the release of seized dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.

Qatar and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) signed an agreement to open Qatar's mission offices and military representation at the NATO headquarters in Brussels

Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the progress made in the agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Qatar took part in the 2020 Annual Nato Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, held virtually in Brussels on Tuesday.

European Union foreign ministers backed a Franco-German plan on Monday to impose sanctions on Russians suspected of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent, diplomats said.