Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Tuesday, the 23rd of January, that he has sent an invitation to his Swedish counterpart for talks on Sweden’s potential NATO membership. Both Hungary and Turkey have delayed the decision, with Turkey preparing to approve Sweden’s application on Tuesday, reports Reuters.
A spokesman for Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Reuters that Stockholm has not yet decided how to respond to the invitation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced this on X, indicating that he had sent a letter of invitation to the Swedish Prime Minister to visit Hungary to negotiate Sweden’s possible accession to NATO, without giving a specific date for the visit.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had said on Tuesday that
the proposed visit was aimed at “building trust”,
stressing that unconditional trust is essential for political and security cooperation.
The Turkish Parliament is expected to approve Sweden’s NATO membership application later on Tuesday and President Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign it into law in the coming days.
This would leave Hungary as the last country to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership, although the Orbán government has said it wants to avoid such a situation.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on X on Tuesday that he had discussed with Orbán “the importance of Sweden quickly joining NATO, making allies safer, NATO stronger and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure”, Reuters quotes him as saying.
Sweden applied for NATO membership in May 2022 in a historic shift in its security policy prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey and Hungary raised objections, delaying a process that requires consensus among NATO members.
Also read: Turkey postpones vote on Sweden’s NATO bid
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