Finns Fear NATO Entry to Let US Drag Helsinki Into Armed Conflicts, Hungarian Politician Says

Tossing away decades of neutrality, Finland and Sweden rushed to turn in their NATO membership applications on May 18, 2022. However, Turkiye and Hungary became the only countries of the 30-member alliance to hold out on greenlighting their bids. Earlier this week, the Hungarian Parliament voted in favor of ratifying Finland's entry into NATO.

Residents of Finland fear that after joining NATO, the country will no longer be neutral, as Washington will “exploit” them for its own gains, Fidesz faction leader Mate Kocsis has stated on social media.

The Hungarian politician cited emails received from Finnish politicians, which laid bare the Nordic nation’s concerns over Helsinki’s bid to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

"They fear that after joining, Finland will not remain a neutral, peaceful country, since a section of the border with Russia, about 1,300 kilometers long, could become a hotbed of armed conflicts,” he was cited by media reports as saying.

Kocsis said that concerned Finnish citizens had asked him, as the leader of the ruling faction in the Hungarian parliament, not to contribute to Helsinki's entry into the military bloc. The Finns also reportedly regretted there had been no referendum on this issue in their own country.

These are all serious concerns, Kocsis was cited as saying, and while he partly agreed with them, he added that it was too late to open up any discussions about this. “We have decided, tonight at 6 p.m. we will vote on Finland’s accession to NATO,” he wrote.

After months of delay, the Hungarian Parliament voted on Monday in favor of ratifying Finland's bid to join NATO. The admission of Helsinki to the US-led bloc was supported by 117 deputies, with 40 against, and another 18 abstaining, according to the parliament's website.

Kocsis said that a parliamentary group would decide on Sweden's NATO bid later.

Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO membership applications, abandoning decades of neutrality, on May 18, 2022. However, Turkiye and Hungary became the only two holdouts in the NATO bloc who cited reservations. Ankara initially blocked their bids due to concerns over Helsinki and Stockholm's long-standing support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkiye regards as a grave national security threat. Following the Madrid-hosted meeting in June 2022, between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two Nordic leaders, Ankara dropped its objections. A security memorandum was penned to unblock Finland and Sweden's bid to enter NATO. However, the process again ground to a standstill for Sweden this past January in the wake of the Quran-burning incident in Stockholm.