---
title: "Hungary signals it’s likely to back Sweden’s Nato bid later in the year"
description: "Hungary signalled on Thursday it could ratify Sweden’s bid to join Nato in the autumn, with a ruling party legislator saying Turkey’s decision to back Sweden’s bid opened the door to strengthening the alliance at a time of need."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "ALLIANCE BOOST"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-07-14-hungary-signals-its-likely-to-back-swedens-nato-bid-in-autumn/"
published: "2023-07-14T04:00:38"
updated: "2023-07-13T23:43:02"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 221
---

# Hungary signals it’s likely to back Sweden’s Nato bid later in the year

> Hungary signalled on Thursday it could ratify Sweden’s bid to join Nato in the autumn, with a ruling party legislator saying Turkey’s decision to back Sweden’s bid opened the door to strengthening the alliance at a time of need.

By Reuters · Published 14 July 2023, 06:00 SAST · Updated 14 July 2023, 01:43 SAST

## Key points
- Hungary’s ratification of Sweden's Nato membership is set to move forward in mid-September, after Turkey dropped its opposition to the bid last Monday.
- Hungary will not delay ratification of Sweden's Nato membership.
- Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan will not forward the ratification to the Turkish parliament until it reopens in autumn.
- Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had delayed ratification.
- The Nordic countries applied for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

## Content

Hungarian legislator Zsolt Nemeth said there was no need to convene an extraordinary session of Parliament sooner to approve the decision as Turkish approval would come later.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has delayed ratification, but his foreign minister said earlier this month that [Budapest would not delay the process](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N38Q35P&linkedFromStory=true) if [Turkey dropped its opposition](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N38W4NC&linkedFromStory=true), which it did on Monday.

“We will take up work in mid-September,” Nemeth, the head of the Hungarian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told private broadcaster InfoRadio.

There is no need to move sooner as Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan will not [forward the ratification](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N38Y27F&linkedFromStory=true) of Sweden’s Nato membership to the Turkish Parliament until it reopens [in the European autumn](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N38Y25V&linkedFromStory=true), he said.

Sweden and Finland applied for Nato membership last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War.

Ankara held out on the ratification for months, accusing Sweden of doing too little against people Turkey sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Hungary’s ratification process has been stranded in Parliament since last July, with Orbán airing concerns about the Nordic countries’ Nato membership.

Hungarian legislators approved Finland’s bid in late March.

*(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Conor Humphries.)*