Sweden set to join NATO after Hungary’s approval
Hungary’s Parliament has removed the final obstacle to Sweden joining the NATO military alliance, after lawmakers voted to approve the application following a standoff that lasted almost two years.
New members of the alliance must receive unanimous support from all member states before being allowed to join, and Hungary was the last country that had not approved Sweden’s membership bid.
In the end, only six lawmakers voted against the proposal out of 194 parliamentarians who voted on Monday in Budapest.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called it “a historic day”.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden would make the alliance “stronger and safer”. The news was also welcomed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said all NATO members would benefit from Sweden’s membership.
“It is good that the Hungarian Parliament approved Sweden’s accession today,” Scholz said.
Elod Novak, vice-chair of the opposition party Our Homeland, was one of the six members of parliament who voted against it.
“Let’s veto Sweden’s NATO accession,” he said before the vote, urging MPs to “veto the path that leads to World War III”.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban had long stalled Sweden’s membership, but told parliament that it would “strengthen Hungary’s security”.
Although repeatedly saying it supported Swedish membership in principle, Hungary kept prolonging the process, asking Stockholm to stop “vilifying” the Hungarian government.
After a meeting between the nationalist Orban and Kristersson in Budapest on Friday, the Hungarian leader announced that the two had clarified “our mutual good intentions”.
Hungary also signed a deal to buy four Swedish-made fighter jets, a sign of the improved relationship between the two countries.
“We not only keep our air defense capability, but will increase it,” said Orban, adding that it meant that his country’s “commitment to NATO will strengthen and so will our participation in NATO’s joint operations”.
Previously, Hungary and Sweden have had very public differences over security matters.
“We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that we should work more actively together when we have common ground,” Kristersson said.
Turkiye’s green light
The other country to hold out over the membership of Sweden and its neighbor Finland — the previous most recent new member — was Turkiye, which is of huge strategic importance to NATO because of its geographical location, close to the Middle East and the Black Sea.
Monday’s ratification by Hungary followed the green light from the Turkish parliament last month. Sweden, which has been militarily neutral for two centuries, will officially become the 32nd member of the alliance at its next summit in Washington in July.
The application still needs to be signed by the newly elected President of Hungary Tamas Sulyok to become law. It will then be sent to the United States’ Department of State, which is the protocol for new members joining the alliance.