NATO chief says Hungarian leader showed ‘clear support’ for Stockholm, just a day after Orbán floated ‘negotiations.’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the last remaining holdout in Sweden’s bid to join NATO, now says he supports its application and vows that Hungary’s parliament will say yes “at the first possible opportunity.”
Orbán’s remark, made during a call today with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, comes a day after he asked his Swedish counterpart to first fly to Hungary for negotiations on NATO membership, only to be snubbed by the Swedish government.
Hungary also broke a promise not to become the last to ratify Sweden’s bid, when the Turkish parliament approved Stockholm’s membership status late Tuesday, some 20 months after Stockholm submitted the application when Russia’s war against Ukraine upended the Scandinavian country’s centuries-old stance of neutrality.
This is probably inevitable now that Turkey gave in. With two obstructionists they could point at each other, but once you’re the last one still blocking, you’re singled out as the asshole.