Hungary is preparing to ratify Sweden’s application for NATO membership this month – V. Orban

Hungary is the last remaining NATO member that has not yet voted to ratify Sweden’s application to join the alliance.

“The good news is that our current dispute with Sweden is coming to an end,” Orban noted in his annual address.

“Together with the Swedish prime minister, we have taken important steps to restore trust,” he said, without elaborating.

“We are ready to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO at the beginning of the spring session of the parliament,” added the Hungarian prime minister.

Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on February 26.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that his country hopes that Hungary will soon ratify the Stockholm application and remove the last obstacle to Sweden’s NATO membership.

Billstrom reiterated that there would be no ratification talks, despite Orban inviting his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to “negotiate” Sweden’s entry into the Alliance.

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

Hungary has maintained close ties with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, and while it has said it supports Sweden’s bid to join the alliance in principle, it has been delaying it for months.

Sweden and Finland have abandoned decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.

Last April, Finland became the 31st member of the Alliance.

Applications for NATO membership must be unanimously ratified by all members of the Alliance.