Hungary begins ratifying Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids

After a lengthy delay, Hungary’s parliament finally began the ratification process for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership on Wednesday. The country’s president and a government official urged legislators to support NATO expansion as soon as possible.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland submitted applications to join the transatlantic defence alliance last year. But, all 30 NATO states must support the applications, and Turkey has objected to Sweden for hosting what it sees as terrorist organisation members.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, said on Monday that discussions with Sweden and Finland about joining NATO would resume on March 9. But, he said that Sweden had still not complied with a memorandum negotiated last year.

The ratification of Hungary has been stuck in parliament since July, and on Friday, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban voiced his first reservations about Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

He has criticised both nations for, among other things, propagating “outright lies” about the state of Hungary’s democracy and rule of law.

Both the Hungarian President Katalin Novak and a representative of the Foreign Ministry urged MPs to confirm Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership “as soon as possible” during the opening of the public debate on the bill on Wednesday.

The initial debate on the procedure was only attended by around a tenth of Hungary’s 199 parliamentarians, and a final vote isn’t anticipated until the second part of March.

Speaking to a practically empty chamber, Foreign Ministry State Secretary Peter Sztaray said, “The expansion of NATO to Finland and Sweden is a big step towards improving the security of the euroatlantic region.

Sztaray stated, “The countries requesting to join meet all requirements for NATO entrance. The NATO membership of Finland and Sweden advances our national security, economic, and economic interests while bolstering NATO.

Before MPs vote on the membership requests, nationalist Orban stated on Friday that further negotiations between parliamentary groups are required.

Pekka Haavisto, the foreign minister of Finland, announced on Tuesday that a parliamentary delegation from Hungary planned to visit Finland on or around March 9 to discuss the Nordic country’s impending NATO membership.

(Reuters)