Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary was committed to ratifying Sweden’s bid to join Nato after Turkey opted to approve its accession to the western military alliance, leaving Budapest as the sole holdout.
After talking by telephone with Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday, Orbán said on social media platform X that he “reaffirmed” Hungarian support for Sweden’s membership. He said he would “continue to urge” the Hungarian parliament to ratify Sweden’s entry “as soon as possible”.
Frustration has grown among alliance members over foot-dragging by Budapest: the Hungarian premier incensed Nato partners on Tuesday, after Turkish lawmakers voted in favour of adding Sweden, when he invited his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to the Hungarian capital to “negotiate on Sweden’s Nato accession”.
One western diplomat said: “It was beyond exasperation [at Orbán] yesterday and a lot of tetchy discussions . . . but the general feeling is that he is just messing us all around a bit, because he can.”
The diplomat added: “The overall signal is that this will get done, and there’s nothing to signal that we have a real problem here.”
All Nato members, including Hungary, agreed to bring in Sweden and Finland at the alliance’s summit in 2022, and Finland was formally admitted in April last year. The two Nordic countries dropped their decades-old neutrality in favour of Nato membership following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.
Orbán also angered EU partners and Washington when he vetoed a €50bn aid plan for Ukraine last month.
In addition, Hungary is blocking disbursements from an EU fund that compensates member states for sending weapons to Kyiv. Orbán broke ranks with EU counterparts when he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing in October.
On Wednesday, Stoltenberg said he had a “good call” with the Hungarian leader, and that he “welcome[s] the clear support of the prime minister and his government for Sweden’s Nato membership”.
“I look forward to the ratification as soon as parliament reconvenes,” he added.
The next regular sitting of the Hungarian National Assembly is due to start in late February, although it could be recalled earlier with 48 hours’ notice.
Orbán’s Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority in parliament and exerts tight control over his MPs, so ratification is entirely within the prime minister’s hands.
The Hungarian leader has never stated any reasons for delaying the ratification, and previously said his country would approve it ahead of Turkey.
However, Sweden in the past has been a staunch critic of the erosion of the rule of law and democratic standards in Hungary during Orbán’s 14 years in power.
Stoltenberg has made completion of Sweden’s membership process a personal undertaking, and engaged directly with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Orbán over the past 18 months to find diplomatic means of reversing their opposition.
Senior Nato officials and diplomats from member states have long made clear that Orbán and his representatives had promised that Hungary would not be the last country to ratify Sweden’s membership, and have privately expressed their discontent at Budapest’s failure to adhere to that pledge.
Read the full article here
