All eyes on Hungary: PM Orbán will baulk NATO expansion?

Sweden and Finland decided to join NATO months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. The Nordic neighbours’ applications were supported by 28 member states, excluding Orbán’s Hungary and Erdogan’s Turkey. Before, opposition politicians believed Orbán did not want the Fidesz-led parliament to discuss the issue because the European Union did not give Hungary access to billions of euros in the recovery and resilience fund.

However, it seems that Finland and Sweden are running out of patience. Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland, urged Hungary and Turkey today to approve the Swedish and Finnish applications as soon as possible. “All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later,” Marin said during a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders, Reuters wrote.

The two Scandinavian countries expressed last week that they would like to join the US-led alliance together and at the same time. That statement served the purpose of showing a united front to Turkey, the alliance’s strongest European member, having several controversial points with Sweden. Istanbul accuses Stockholm of harbouring groups Erdogan’s government deems terrorists.

Read alsoSweden and Finland afraid that Hungary will veto their NATO-accession

On the last regular government info held on 22 October, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said that the parliament would discuss Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO accession during the fall session of the parliament, atv.hu wrote. The delay’s cause was that the priority in September and October were the bills concerning the EU’s infringement and rule-of-law procedures to access the billions of euros withheld by Brussels due to corruption accusations against the government. Furthermore, he expressed that the government supports the bid of the two Nordic countries.

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, tweeted today that he spoke with Finnish PM Sanna Marin and Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson via phone. “As NATO invitees Finland and Sweden have proven that it’s every country’s right to choose its own path, Russia must respect the rights of other countries and stop its war of aggression in Ukraine”, he added.

Read alsoLatvian Defence Minister calls Hungary a traitor, Hungarian counterpart reacts

Source: Reuters, atv.hu, Twitter