Sweden's NATO bid delayed until next week at earliest, Bloomberg
Photo: Sweden is on the brink of joining NATO (Getty Images)
Sweden's accession to NATO, most likely, will be held no earlier than next week as the elected president of Hungary has yet to take office, reports Bloomberg.
While no specific date has yet been set, the process is expected to be completed next week or the week after, according to people familiar with the preparations. However, the deadlines may shift.
Hungarian lawmakers this week elected the head of the country's constitutional court, Tamás Sulyok, as the next president after the head of state was ousted this month amid a child abuse scandal.
Sulyok would be expected to sign off on Budapest’s ratification.
The accession ceremony at the headquarters of the military alliance in Brussels was originally scheduled for this Friday, March 1.
Sweden's NATO accession
Sweden has applied to join NATO in 2022. The only countries that refused to ratify membership were Türkiye and Hungary.
Recently, however, the Turkish and Hungarian parliaments approved Sweden's entry into the Alliance. After the ratification of the document, Hungary must send Sweden's application to the US State Department.
Earlier, White House spokesperson Karin Jean-Pierre said that Hungary needs to quickly complete the process of ratifying Sweden's application to officially become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
