Hungary finally ratifies Sweden's NATO accession

The Hungarian Parliament ratified Sweden’s accession to NATO on 26 February, a year and a half after the fact.

According to 444.hu, 188 Members of the Hungarian Parliament have voted in favour of the ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession, 6 have voted against.

Formally the ratification process will end after the ratification protocol is signed by the President of Hungary and published in the official journal. The process is expected to be finalised within a week.

Hungary was the last NATO member state to approve Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Budapest claimed for a long time that it supported Sweden’s accession and would not be "the last to approve it". In reality the ratification was carried out in the Hungarian Parliament even later than in Türkiye, which actively criticised Sweden due to insufficient "efforts against terrorism".

On 23 February, Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Sweden, arrived in Budapest with a visit. During the visit his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán stated that "trust was rebuilt" in the relations between the two countries. The information that Sweden is planning to sell four more Gripen fighter jets to Hungary and extend the agreement on their maintenance was confirmed.