Vote on Sweden's NATO bid delayed in Hungarian parliament

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - A vote in Hungary’s parliament to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO was adjourned due to the absence of ruling party lawmakers, local media reported Monday.

The move was postponed after members of the ruling party, which has a two-thirds majority in parliament, did not attend the meeting, the Daily News Hungary reported.

Addressing the session, opposition lawmakers criticized ruling party members over their absence at the session, added the report.

Last week, Hungary said it would back Türkiye's decision on Sweden's bid to join NATO.

"If there is a shift (in Türkiye's stance), then of course we will keep the promise that Hungary will not hold up any country in terms of membership," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference in Budapest.

Ahead of a NATO summit in July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join NATO following a trilateral meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership shortly after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership to NATO, it is waiting for Sweden to fulfill its commitments not to provide shelter to terrorists and supporters of terrorists and not to greenlight their actions.

Following Türkiye's move, Szijjarto said his country's ratification of Sweden's NATO bid is now "only a technical question."