Hungary’s parliament to soon ratify agreement on Sweden’s accession to NATO — Orban

 Hungary’s parliament will ratify the agreement on Sweden’s accession to NATO in the beginning of the spring session, which is due to open on February 26, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his annual speech on the country’s policy priorities.

"Our dispute with Sweden is nearing its end. Jointly with Sweden’s Prime Minister [Ulf Kristersson] we have taken important steps on rebuilding trust. We are coming closer to be able to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO in the beginning of the parliament’s spring session," Orban told national television.

The spring session of Hungary’s parliament will begin after the winter holidays on February 26. The Hungarian cabinet submitted to parliament a bill to approve Sweden’s membership in NATO back in the summer of 2022. Hungary remains the only country in the alliance, whose parliament has not ratified this agreement.

On January 23, Orban extended an invitation to his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson for talks on the kingdom’s accession to NATO. At first he agreed, but later noted that he would come to Budapest only after the Hungarian parliament ratified the agreement. On February 1, the two leaders met at the EU summit in Brussels.

The government promised earlier that Hungary would not be the last country that is not ratifying the documents on Sweden’s accession to NATO. On January 23, the Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership bid, leaving Hungary as the only country in the alliance whose parliament has yet to vote on the accession. On January 24, Orban said after a phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the government supported Sweden’s accession to the alliance and called on the parliament to approve this step.

On March 27, 2023, Hungary’s parliament greenlighted Finland’s NATO accession but postponed the consideration of Sweden’s bid. The two Nordic countries applied for NATO membership simultaneously on May 18, 2022, saying that the move had been prompted by developments in Ukraine.