• Home
• Channel: Current Affairs
• Watch: Hungary to Ratify Sweden’s NATO Accession Soon

Watch: Hungary to Ratify Sweden’s NATO Accession Soon

• 20 Feb 2024 7:00 AM
• BudaPost

A pro-government pundit welcomes a military-industrial agreement under preparation between Sweden and Hungary, as more noteworthy than the planned parliamentary vote on Sweden’s NATO membership.

In his annual State of the Nation address to a public of Fidesz faithful on Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Sweden’s bid to join NATO may be ratified by Parliament early in its spring session (starting on Monday next week).

Meanwhile, a three-member US Senate delegation that came to Hungary apparently to urge ratification complained that they hadn’t been received by any government or Fidesz officials. Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó said Hungary makes her decisions on her own without needing pressure from abroad.

In Magyar Nemzet, Ottó Gajdics praises Prime Minister Orbán, for ’inspiring enthusiasm and calm’ in his speech on Saturday. Western media, he writes, concentrated on the Prime Minister’s words on an early ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO, but ’what is more important to us’, intense negotiations have been underway for weeks between Sweden and Hungary ’on a giant industrial-military deal’. And the agreement is imminent, he adds.

On Index, Gergely Borsi reports that although no specifics have been disclosed about the negotiations between Hungary and Sweden, it is believed that new deliveries of Swedish Gripen fighter jets may be part of the planned agreement. Hungarian Air Force pilots have flown  Gripens for two decades and their licence expires this year. Borsi also writes that preparations are underway for an early visit by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to Budapest.

MTI Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák

You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories, via our Facebook page: 
Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoop’s groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary

You can subscribe to our newsletter here:
XpatLoop.com/Newsletters

Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers?
Then just contact us here!

Related links

State of the Nation Speech: Orbán Praises Disgraced President, Says 2024 Will Be "A Year Of Success", Opposition Reacts

• How does this content make you feel?
• I love it
• I like it
• I dislike it

• Sweden NATO

XpatLoop Media Partner

BudaPost

Launched in May 2011 to provide a balanced picture of matters covered in Hungary’s national press. Their aim is to make it easier for English-speakers to understand where this country is now and where it’s heading according to the full spectrum of media opinions.

Explore More Reports

Orbán: War in Ukraine Will be 'Longer, More Brutal' than Anticipated

• 3 Jun 2025 11:33 AM

Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday warned that the war in Ukraine would be "longer and more brutal" than anticipated at the start of the year, and "we must be ready for intensified covert operations, smear campaigns and war propaganda against Hungary".



Updated: More Ukrainian Spies Identified by Hungarian National Security Services

• 21 May 2025 7:15 AM

The national security services have identified more Ukrainian spies, including Roland Tseber as an "illegal" officer of the Ukrainian intelligence service, and Istvan Hollo, who is under investigation by the National Office of Investigation on the suspicion of espionage activities, ruling Fidesz's parliamentary group leader said after a meeting of the national security committee.



Watch: Is Trump Leaving 'His Favorite European Leader' Orbán in the Lurch?

• 7 Apr 2025 2:58 PM

"America’s first" Donald Trump has met "Hungary’s first", Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, several times in the recent past. He has been considered an important partner: a fellow populist at the heart of Europe, within NATO. Orbán wants to show the world he still is important to Trump...



Boosting Military Cooperation Agreed Between Hungary & Serbia

• 2 Apr 2025 6:24 AM

Hungary and Serbia on Tuesday agreed to boost military cooperation and signed an agreement on the 2025 plan, Defence Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in Belgrade.