Hungary begins ratification of Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership applications

On Wednesday, the National Assembly) of the Hungarian Parliament began the process of ratifying Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO, after 7 months of postponement of this procedure, starting in July 2022.Ahead of parliamentary debates last Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán publicly listed for the first time the grievances of the ruling Hungarian party Fidesz over Sweden and Finland joining the alliance. In particular, he accused the two countries of spreading lies about the state of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.At the same time, Hungarian President Katalin Nowak and State Secretary for Security Policy in the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter Shtarai, opening the general debate on the bill on Wednesday, called on Hungarian parliamentarians to ratify as soon as possible quick accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.At the same time, there were exceptionally few parliamentarians in the room, around 10 out of 199.”The enlargement of NATO to include Finland and Sweden is an important step towards strengthening the security of the Euro-Atlantic region,” Shtarai said. According to him, “Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO is in the interest of Hungary’s foreign policy, security and economic interests”.Orban said more talks were needed between parliamentary groups before lawmakers vote on NATO expansion proposals. The final vote is not expected before the second half of March.The deadline for the ratification vote has been pushed back several times. Earlier, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s cabinet said that Hungary must first adopt anti-corruption legislation and after that it would be able to solve NATO’s problems. Hungary’s opposition has repeatedly accused Orban’s ruling party of delaying the vote and of Orban seeking to maintain ties with Moscow.Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday that Hungary intended to send a parliamentary delegation to Finland on March 9 to discuss any differences.Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine .Of the 30 NATO member countries, only Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify their demands. The admission of new members to NATO requires the approval of the 30 countries that make up the alliance. Finland and Sweden had hoped for a quick accession process and were taken by surprise by Turkish and Hungarian objections.Turkey insists on the extradition by Sweden of the representatives of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who have obtained political asylum in this country. Ankara accuses the PKK of involvement in the 2016 coup attempt. In Turkey, the PKK is banned and declared a terrorist organization.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that talks with Sweden and Finland would resume on March 9, although he said Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under the memorandum signed there. ‘last year.Earlier, Turkey withdrew from the trilateral mechanism with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO membership applications. It came after Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right group Hard Deal, burned a Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January.In May, Turkey will hold presidential and parliamentary elections, and many analysts believe that progress in negotiations with Turkey can only be made after their completion.