Turkey ratified Sweden’s membership in January.
Today, the Hungarian Parliament has to vote on the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership. Hungary is the last NATO country that has not yet ratified Sweden’s membership application.
In advance, only one far-right party is expected to vote against the ratification.
Hungary remained the last ratifier after the NATO knot between Sweden and Turkey finally opened and Turkey ratified Sweden’s membership in January.
Finland, which applied for NATO membership at the same time as Sweden in May 2022, has already been a NATO member for ten months. The ratification of Finland’s membership was delayed the longest by Turkey and Hungary.
After the vote of the Hungarian Parliament, the instrument of ratification still needs to be physically deposited with the US State Department, after which the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg can invite Sweden to join NATO. At best, the blue-yellow flag can be hoisted in front of the NATO headquarters in Brussels already at the end of this week.
The process can be complicated by the fact that the Hungarian Parliament has yet to approve the Katalin Novak too resign from the position of the president and appoint a successor or deputy, whose signature is required by the decision to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership.
Sweden and Hungary reached an agreement last week, according to which Hungary will buy four Saab Gripen fighters from Sweden in addition to the current 14. The relevant agreement was signed by the prime minister Viktor Orban and the prime minister by Ulf Kristersson in connection with the meeting in Budapest on Friday. At the same time, the support agreement for destroyers was extended by ten years until 2036.