Orbán supports. Sweden will become member of NATO 'very soon', Stoltenberg
Photo: Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General (Getty Images)
Sweden will soon become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance. The Hungarian Parliament will ratify the application after the end of the winter holidays at the end of February, says NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a joint press conference with the US President's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
"I spoke with [Prime Minister Orbán] a few days ago and he made it very clear that he strongly support Swedish membership of the Alliance. It is also clear that the Hungarian parliament is not in session now but they will reconvene at the end of February and the message was that soon after that they will make a decision on ratification of Sweden," Stoltenberg said.
He reminded that the processes of Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO are among the fastest in history. The countries applied in May 2022 and were invited already in July.
"Then Finland become a full member in April last year, and I expect then Sweden to be a member very soon. That demonstrates that NATO is not only getting stronger but NATO is also getting bigger, Finland already a member and Sweden, very soon," the Secretary General added.
Sweden's NATO accession
It will be recalled that Sweden applied to join NATO in 2022. The only countries that refused to ratify membership were Türkiye and Hungary.
Recently, the Turkish parliament nevertheless approved Sweden's entry into the Alliance.
The final step is ratification by the Hungarian Parliament. But he is on vacation until the end of February.
Recently, the Hungarian opposition proposed holding an extraordinary session of the parliament in order to ratify Sweden's application. However, the ruling party staged a boycott.
