Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will meet his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban this Friday, ahead of next Monday’s crucial parliamentary vote on Sweden’s stalled bid to join NATO. His talks with Orban in Budapest will focus on “cooperation in defense and security policy between Hungary and Sweden,” the Swedish government reported on Tuesday.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden abandoned two centuries of military non-alignment and applied to join the US-led Western military alliance in May 2022 at the same time as Finland. However, Helsinki became the 31st member of NATO in April 2023, but Turkey and Hungary delayed Sweden’s entry.
After more than a year of delays, Turkey ratified Sweden’s application for membership in January. Although it supports Stockholm in principle, Hungary has dragged out the process by calling on Sweden to stop “denigrating” the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which his critics accuse of authoritarianism.
He often denounced what he called Sweden’s “openly hostile attitude”, in which he accused Swedish representatives of “repeatedly seeking to attack Hungary” on rule of law issues. But Buddy KocsisLeader of Orban’s Fidesz party in parliament, announced Tuesday that his group “intends to support Sweden’s application for NATO membership” when Hungarian lawmakers vote on it on Monday.
In January, Orban invited the Swedish prime minister to Hungary, citing the need “Build strong mutual trust” through “more intensive political dialogue”. Kristersson accepted the invitation, but rejected the idea of “negotiations” and “demands.” regarding the country’s attempt to join NATO.