“No, and I note that Finland, whose application [par dalību NATO] just ratified [Ungārijas parlaments], have exactly the same views on the supremacy of law as Sweden, and also the European Union. But we don’t have such agreements with Hungary,” Bilström said.
The minister noted that the ratification of Finland’s application is an important step and NATO membership will contribute to the security of both Finland and Sweden. Now, among the NATO countries, only Turkey has not approved Finland’s request to join the alliance, however, on March 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the parliament to vote on Finland’s application to join NATO.
Sweden’s request for admission to the alliance has so far not been approved by Hungary and Turkey.
“In the short term it is not a problem if Sweden has to wait, but in the long term it will be problematic. In that case, the defense cooperation that exists between Sweden and Finland will not be able to continue in its current form. Of course we don’t want to see that,” added Bilström.
Finland and Sweden announced their desire to join NATO after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
On Monday, the Hungarian Parliament ratified Finland’s application for NATO membership. A day before that, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peters Szijártó announced that Hungary wants more respect from Finland and Sweden.
On the other hand, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s office, Balážs Orbáns, announced that Hungarian parliamentarians are waiting for “confirmations” from Sweden that there will be no political debate between the two countries.
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