Orbán invites Swedish Prime Minister to Hungary, intends to discuss Swedish NATO accession

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited Ulf Kristersson, the Prime Minister of Sweden to Hungary, the PM's Press Secretary, Bertalan Havasi has informed the state news agency, MTI.

As the invitation states, they will discuss Sweden's NATO accession, as well as strengthening bilateral relations and deepening mutual trust.

Sweden's accession to NATO has long been a central issue in Hungarian domestic politics. At the last government briefing, Telex asked Minister Gergely Gulyás, Head of the Prime Minister's Office, about this very topic. "Would NATO be stronger if Sweden were to become a full member?" Gulyás responded by saying that more countries ensure greater strength, but Sweden would be a minimal contributor, as the bulk of NATO's military strength is provided by 5-6 countries anyways. He also said that the Swedes were behaving as if the vote on their NATO membership was not important to them, and added that the Hungarian government still wants to avoid being the last to ratify the Swedish accession.

If this is indeed true, they would do well to hurry up, as, according to press reports, the Turkish parliament is expected to vote on ratifying Sweden's accession to NATO this week. If that were to happen, Hungary would be the only member state left after one and a half years that has not yet ratified Sweden's membership. It had been previously suggested that the Hungarian Parliament would vote on the Swedish request during the summer of 2023, but that did not happen.

Hungarian government MPs have thus been postponing the vote for various reasons, one of which was that “Swedish politicians have insulted Hungary”. As recently as the end of December, speaking at a government briefing, the Prime Minister said that Hungarian MPs had not yet been able to stomach the decision.

Commenting on the invitation late Tuesday, according to Expressen, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that he sees no reason to negotiate about NATO, and added:

"What we hope, of course, is that Hungary will ratify membership as soon as possible."

Speaking to Swedish public media, Billström explalined that they would have to consider the invitation and are analysing the contents of the letter. Expressen also points out that the Hungarian left would have already endorsed the country's NATO membership.