"Confident" Sweden will soon join NATO: US envoy to Hungary

The U.S. ambassador to Hungary stated on Thursday that Washington is “confident” that Sweden will join NATO shortly and added that he had received assurances from Budapest that it will not be the final country to ratify the request.

Budapest’s reluctance to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership and Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s close links to Moscow in spite of the conflict in Ukraine have damaged relations with Washington.

“I have been repeatedly assured at the senior-most levels of this government that Hungary will not be last to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO,” the ambassador stated.

Hungary and Turkey still need to ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO.

Although Budapest opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained tight ties with Moscow for many years, in part because Hungary still depends on Russia for its energy needs, and he has refrained from denouncing President Vladimir Putin’s policies.

Hungary was urged to break connections with what it termed a “opaque Kremlin-controlled platform” by the United States, which in April placed sanctions on IIB, a Russian bank with its headquarters in Budapest. Days after the penalties, Hungary withdrew from the bank.

Pressman added that the United States was also concerned about a “sovereignty protection bill” flagged by the ruling Fidesz party. Pressman has a history of tussling with the Hungarian government over issues such as LGBT rights and, more recently, Orban’s meeting with Putin in Beijing.

The law was supposed to be submitted to parliament by Orban’s Fidesz on Tuesday, but it has been postponed. In September, a Fidesz MP stated that political parties, quasi-civil groups, and “left-wing journalists” may be subject to the proposed laws that would target foreign influence.

“To the extent that this bill may seek to criminalise and or intimidate independent civil society and media organisations, that is very dangerous, and I hope that’s not the path that Hungary chooses to go down,” said Pressman.

(With agency inputs)