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Hungary ‘on course’ to ratify Sweden NATO bid this month: PM Orban

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Saturday that his country was "on course" to ratify Sweden's NATO accession bid this month as Budapest remains the last holdout.

Published: 18 February 2024 09:29 CET
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban pictured at a press conference in Vienna, Austria
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban pictured at a press conference in Vienna, Austria, July 28, 2022. Orban said Saturday Hungary was "on course" to ratify Sweden's NATO accession bid this month (Photo by Alex HALADA / AFP)

“The good news is that our current dispute with Sweden is moving towards a conclusion,” Orban said in his state-of-the-nation address.

“Together with the Swedish PM, we have taken important steps in order to rebuild trust,” he said, without giving further details.

“We are on course to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO at the beginning of parliament’s spring session,” he added.

Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on February 26.

On Wednesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his country hoped that Hungary will soon ratify its accession to NATO, removing the last obstacle to its membership.

READ ALSO: Inside Sweden: When exactly will Sweden join Nato?

Billstrom reiterated there would be no negotiations on the ratification despite Orban inviting his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to “negotiate” Sweden’s accession.

“There is nothing to negotiate, if there is a visit, it’s not going to be a negotiation, that has been made very clear by my prime minister,” the Swedish minister said earlier this week.

Although it supports Stockholm in principle, Budapest prolonged the process by asking Sweden to stop “vilifying” the Hungarian government, which is accused of taking an authoritarian turn.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden announced its application to join NATO in May 2022, at the same time as Finland.

Finland became the organisation’s 31st member in April 2023 after all NATO members ratified its bid.

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MILITARY

Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

Sweden is willing to manage a future Nato land force in neighbouring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.

Published: 16 September 2024 13:42 CEST
Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for Nato membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland became a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.

Nato said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia.

“This kind of military presence in a Nato country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen told a press conference.

The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.

“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Häkkänen’s Swedish counterpart Pål Jonson told reporters.

Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside Nato.

There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.

Häkkänen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other Nato members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.

Nato says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups”, in Eastern Europe – in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

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