SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Hungary 'on course' to ratify Sweden NATO bid this month: Orban
Budapest, Feb 17 (AFP) Feb 17, 2024
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Saturday that his country was "on course" to ratify Sweden's NATO accession bid this month as Budapest remains the last holdout.

"The good news is that our current dispute with Sweden is moving towards a conclusion," Orban said in his state-of-the-nation address.

"Together with the Swedish PM, we have taken important steps in order to rebuild trust," he said, without giving further details.

"We are on course to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO at the beginning of parliament's spring session," he added.

Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on February 26.

On Wednesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his country hoped that Hungary will soon ratify its accession to NATO, removing the last obstacle to its membership.

Billstrom reiterated there would be no negotiations on the ratification despite Orban inviting his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to "negotiate" Sweden's accession.

"There is nothing to negotiate, if there is a visit, it's not going to be a negotiation, that has been made very clear by my prime minister," the Swedish minister said earlier this week.

Although it supports Stockholm in principle, Budapest prolonged the process by asking Sweden to stop "vilifying" the Hungarian government, which is accused of taking an authoritarian turn.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden announced its application to join NATO in May 2022, at the same time as Finland.

Finland became the organisation's 31st member in April 2023 after all NATO members ratified its bid.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Maven stays silent after routine pass behind Mars
ICE-CSIC leads a pioneering study on the feasibility of asteroid mining
NASA JPL Unveils Rover Operations Center for Moon, Mars Missions

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Thorium plated steel points to smaller nuclear clocks
Solar ghost particles seen flipping carbon atoms in underground detector
Overview Energy debuts airborne power beaming milestone for space based solar power

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Autonomous DARPA project to expand satellite surveillance network by BAE Systems
IAEA calls for repair work on Chernobyl sarcophagus
Momentus joins US Space Force SHIELD contract vehicle

24/7 News Coverage
UAlbany Atmospheric Scientist Proposes Innovative Method to Reduce Aviation's Climate Impact
Digital twin successfully launched and deployed into space
Robots that spare warehouse workers the heavy lifting



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.