Hungary to Send Delegation to Sweden With Stockholm's NATO Bid on the Line

According to Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Budapest has "legitimate concerns" regarding Swedish government officials spreading "lies and fake news" about Hungary and insulting its MPs.

A delegation of Hungarian lawmakers plans to visit Sweden on 7 March to discuss the Nordic country's bid to join NATO against the background of Budapest's qualms about Stockholm.

During the visit, the Hungarian delegation, led by the deputy speaker of Hungary's National Assembly, Csaba Hende, will meet with the speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Andreas Norlen.

According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, there are aspects of the relationship with Sweden that are causing friction, which is why a delegation is now being sent.

"In recent years, lies and fake news about Hungary have been spread by government officials in Sweden, quite regularly," Szijjarto told Swedish media.

Among others, Swedish government officials have often insisted that Hungary does not live up to the principles of the rule of law and is not a real democracy, which infuriates Budapest.

According to Szijjarto, Swedish government officials have also been guilty of insulting Hungarian MPs. He added that Hungary now seeks to address these "legitimate concerns" in talks with Sweden.

Depending on the outcome, the Hungarian parliament will then vote on Sweden's NATO membership on 20 or 21 March, two weeks later than initially planned.

The two Nordic countries applied to join the military alliance last May, effectively abandoning the vestiges of their historic non-alignment under the pretext of "security considerations" in connection with Russia's special operation in Ukraine.

Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO members who yet have to ratify the bids. Last autumn, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised that his country would approve Sweden and Finland's application in early 2023. However, the Hungarian government has pointed out that there are divided opinions on the matter in parliament. Earlier this week, Finland said it also expected a visit from a Hungarian delegation.

So far, Sweden has been facing stern objections from Turkey, which accused Stockholm of harboring members of Kurdish groups which Ankara regards as terrorist. Although Turkey indicated that it could approve Finland's application, it gave no assurances that it would greenlight Sweden's bid. To make matters worse, a copy of the Quran was burnt in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in late January, throwing a new spanner in Sweden's NATO bid. After the incident - which came in the wake of several other demonstrations personally insulting the Turkish president - Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden that it should not expect his backing to join NATO.

This dynamic made Finland reconsider its chances. Although vocally indicating that it intended to "walk the NATO path together", Helsinki keeps edging closer to joining NATO alone, having recently set a deadline for how long it is prepared to wait for its co-applicant Sweden. Previously, polls among politicians and ordinary Finns alike displayed a readiness to proceed without the neighboring nation.