We will have to wait: Hungarian Foreign Minister explains when Sweden's NATO membership will be ratified

Sweden will have to wait again for the ratification of its NATO membership application by Hungary, which remains the only country that has not agreed to the Kingdom's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. The Hungarian Parliament will consider this issue at the end of February.

This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó Péter on Tuesday, January 30, during a briefing, according to the Hungarian edition 24.hu. According to him, the parliament will not meet only to ratify Sweden's application to NATO.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, after having a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, called on his country's parliament to ratify Sweden's accession to the Alliance. Hungarian opposition parties have submitted a proposal to convene an extraordinary session of parliament for this purpose.

However, Szijjártó believes that such an additional session is unjustified.

"Now we are not separated by a long period from the beginning of the next month's regular parliamentary session at the end of February. Therefore, I see no reason to resort to the means of an extraordinary session," the Hungarian minister said.

Answering journalists' questions, Szijjártó said that if the parliament was going to meet only next year, it would be worth considering such an extraordinary meeting.

"But since the parliament meets at the end of February, we can wait until the next session, and then this issue can be put on the agenda if the parliamentary majority decides so," he said.

As a reminder, Sweden applied for NATO membership in May 2022, along with Finland, which was a historic shift in its security policy due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, the country still has to wait for the ratification of its application.

Earlier, on January 23, the Turkish parliament approved Sweden's application to join the Alliance. The next day, Ankara officially approved the ratification of Sweden's accession to NATO. The decision was published in the Official Gazette and signed by the country's president, after which it came into force.

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