Parliament of Hungary opens the door for Sweden to join NATO

Hungary’s parliament has given approval for Sweden to join Nato, so Sweden can now become a member.

The Nordic country asked to join the defense alliance after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022. Each person has to agree to a new member joining, but Hungary was taking longer because it accused Sweden of being unfriendly towards it.

Last week, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the two countries are ready to sacrifice their lives for each other. All Nato countries must support each other if one is attacked.

The Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, said that it was a very important day and a significant move for Sweden to stop being neutral after 200 years.

“We think Sweden is a great country, but we are joining NATO to better protect ourselves and our beliefs,” he explained.

Nato’s leader Jens Stoltenberg said that Hungary‘s decision made the alliance “stronger and safer”.

The president needs to sign the parliament’s approval, and then a formal invitation will be sent to Sweden to join the group of 31 members.

The process typically takes a few days.

Mr Orban is a politician who loves his country and is friends with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He has stopped the EU from giving weapons to Ukraine many times.

Sweden is one of the European Union countries that say Hungary is moving backwards on the EU’s democratic rules.

MrOrban’s spokesperson, Zoltan Kovacs, said that officials in Sweden think they are better than everyone else, but their power is weakening.

Last week, Mr Orban met with the leader of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, and said he supports Sweden being in the group.

On Monday, almost all Hungarian MPs agreed to a vote – 188 yes, 6 no.

In his speech, Mr. Orban strongly criticized some Nato allies for trying to make his government stop the 21-month delay.

Hungary is a free country and won’t accept being told what to do by others, about what decisions to make or when to make them.

Turkey did not agree to let Sweden join Nato because it thought Sweden was helping Kurdish separatists. It finally decided to stop blocking or saying no in January.

Sweden and Finland, who have always stayed out of military conflicts, said that they want to join Nato in May 2022.

Finland officially became a member of the alliance in April of last year, which made the alliance’s border with Russia twice as long.

In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his army into Ukraine to stop Nato from getting bigger and make Western countries weaker.

Actually, the opposite has happened with Sweden and Finland joining.