By Gergely Szakacs
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian lawmakers began the ratification process for Finland and Sweden’s NATO entry on Wednesday after a months-long delay, as the president and a government official called on them to swiftly endorse expansion of the alliance.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the transatlantic defence pact after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But all 30 NATO members must ratify the applications and Sweden has faced objections from Turkey for harbouring what Ankara considers to be members of terrorist groups.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday talks with Sweden and Finland over their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, although he said Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year.
With Hungary’s ratification process stranded in parliament since July, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership for the first time last Friday.
Among other criticisms, Orban has accused both countries of spreading “outright lies” about the health of democracy and rule of law in Hungary.
Opening a general debate of the legislation on Wednesday, both President Katalin Novak and a Foreign Ministry official urged lawmakers to ratify Finland and Sweden’s NATO entry “as soon as possible”.
Only around a 10th of Hungary’s 199 lawmakers attended the opening debate on the process, with a final vote not expected until the second half of March.
“The expansion of NATO to Finland and Sweden is a significant step towards strengthening the security of the euroatlantic region,” Foreign Ministry State Secretary Peter Sztaray said, speaking to a nearly empty chamber.
“The countries wishing to join meet all conditions of NATO entry,” he said. “Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership serves our foreign policy, security and economic interests and it also strengthens NATO.”
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Hungarian lawmakers would visit counterparts in Sweden and Finland to hold talks as early as next week.
“I hope that after these discussions – which will be reassuring, hopefully – the vote will be positive,” Szijjarto said, adding that he expected the final vote to take place in three to five weeks.
Orban said on Friday more talks between parliamentary groups were needed before lawmakers vote on the membership bids.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday Hungary intended to send a parliamentary delegation to Finland on or around March 9 to discuss the Nordic nation’s bid for accession to NATO.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, Jason Hovet, Alan Charlish and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; editing by Christina Fincher, Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)
