The Hungarian Parliament is preparing to approve Sweden’s accession to NATO on Monday February 26. This is the final step for the Nordic country wishing to join the Atlantic Alliance, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The wait will have been long and the road chaotic: to the negotiations with Turkey, concluded by a positive vote in January, were added the procrastination of the Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban. He had certainly given his agreement in principle a long time ago, but before completing the process, he demanded ” respect “ of Stockholm, considered too critical of its policies.
The situation has finally been resolved in recent weeks, with the visit on Friday of the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, signing the epilogue of a “long process to rebuild trust”, in the words of Mr. Orban. To seal this cooperation, the two countries announced the purchase by Budapest of four combat aircraft from Sweden, strengthening its current fleet of fourteen Gripen aircraft.
Sweden, 32e NATO member
The parliamentary vote, scheduled for the afternoon, promises to be unsurprising given the two-thirds majority held by the ruling coalition. The opposition will also vote for it, with the exception of the far-right Our Fatherland.
The protocol for Sweden’s accession to NATO, which requires unanimity of the members of the Atlantic Alliance, has been on hold since May 2022. Once the approval of the Hungarian Parliament is received, the law should be promulgated by the president in the coming days. Sweden will then be able to deposit its “instrument of accession” in Washington, in accordance with NATO practices, to become the 32nde member.
In the case of Finland, for example, Ankara gave the green light on March 30, 2023 and Finland submitted the document on April 4, therefore joining the Alliance five days after the Turkish vote. Stockholm announced its candidacy in the wake of the Kremlin offensive in Ukraine, at the same time as Helsinki.
Over the months, Hungary had continued to delay the deadline, each time invoking different pretexts.
Sweden thus puts an end to its military non-alignment
Sweden’s membership in NATO will put an end to two hundred years of military non-alignment for the Nordic country, which thus breaks with its policy of neutrality adopted after the end of the Napoleonic wars in the 19th century.e century, then military non-alignment since the end of the Cold War. This membership marks a profound change for Swedish defense, which is now part of a collective, and a major geopolitical development for the region.
The former Social Democratic Minister of Defense, Peter Hultqvist, still declared in the fall of 2021 that he could ” to guarantee “ that he would never participate in an accession process. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a dramatic shift in parties and opinion, and a clear majority of parliament voted in May 2022 to apply for NATO membership.
Sweden’s – and Finland’s – membership in NATO also means that the Baltic Sea is now surrounded by Alliance member countries, with some analysts calling it a “NATO Lake”. “This is the last piece of the puzzle of the NATO map in Northern Europe which is falling into place”Robert Dalsjö, analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, told Agence France-Presse.