Hungary and Turkey must keep their promises and formalize Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in the bloc, said the foreign minister.
Hungary and Turkey should stop blocking the ratification of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday, adding that there is a “crystal clear basis” for the two Nordic nations to join the military bloc.
Ankara and Budapest have delayed the process, with Türkiye pointing to concerns over Sweden and Finland’s alleged support for Kurdish “terrorism”, while Hungary says it will vote on the issue after resolving a number of differences with the EU.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billström, Baerbock said both Ankara and Budapest have committed to formalizing the accession “and that is exactly what they need to do now.”
She went on to reprimand Budapest for delaying the ratification process. “On the issue of Hungary: I would like to underline this clearly … there is no gray area,” she noted, adding that Berlin would give “its kind encouragement” for the accession process.
In May, amid Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, broke with its decades-long stance of neutrality and formally applied for NATO membership. While the bloc accepted the requests, the Nordic nations’ bid must be ratified by all 30 member states, with Türkiye and Hungary’s approval still pending.
Ankara demands that Stockholm and Helsinki do more to fight “terrorism”, especially Kurdish groups banned in Türkiye, negotiations on the issue are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, Hungarian officials have repeatedly voiced their support for NATO expansion. On Wednesday, Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, claimed that the Hungarian parliament would discuss the ratification in the autumn session.
“Finland and Sweden are our allies and they can trust us,” he said, adding that he hopes they will finish the process “before the end of this year.”
The Hungarian government tabled the relevant bills in mid-July, but they have still not been debated. Budapest has denied it is holding up the accession process, but officials said they would not vote on the issue until they pass laws aimed at easing the dispute with the EU, which has proposed cutting about 7.5 billion euros (7.66 billion dollars) in funding for Budapest over corruption issues.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk