Hungary gives the green light and Sweden will become a new member of NATO

It has been a long time coming but it has arrived: this Monday the Hungarian Parliament gave the green light for Sweden to become a new member of NATO, after many months of talks. In this way, the Nordic country will become ally number 32, just a few months after the entry of Finland in a context marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. After overcoming Turkey's veto, the blockade of Hungary was the last obstacle for the Swedes.

“I welcome the Hungarian parliament's vote to ratify Sweden's membership in NATO. Now that all allies have approved it, Sweden will become ally number 32. Sweden's membership will make us all stronger and more secure,” Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg quickly reacted.

The entries of Finland and Sweden represent a change of era for NATO, spurred on in the last two years by the movements of Vladimir Putin. Both countries leave behind many decades of supposed neutrality, although they already actively collaborated with the Alliance. Finland was not a neutral country by choice, but by obligation. Finland's neutrality policy dates back to the period immediately after World War II.

Its interest in remaining neutral in conflicts between great powers was first recognized in a treaty between Finland and the USSR in 1948 (the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance).. In the Swedish case, after 1945, he chose to remain neutral and then his position depended largely on the status of Finland and indirectly also on the USSR's policy towards Helsinki.

The ratification by the Hungarian Parliament occurred with 188 votes in favor and 6 against and was supported above all by the party of Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, which has an absolute majority.. The Magyar leader tightened the rope in recent months with Sweden and NATO as a way to indirectly pressure the European Union to somehow stop its aid to Ukraine.. But his veto never had as much weight as the one that did exist for quite some time on the part of Turkey.. In that case, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “concerned” that Sweden was, he said, a “haven for terrorists” for hosting leaders of the Kurdish party.

“Today is a historic day. The parliaments of all NATO member states have now voted in favor of Sweden's accession to NATO. “Sweden is willing to assume its responsibility in matters of Euro-Atlantic security,” they celebrated from the office of the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, who after several meetings with Orbán already took the ratification of the Hungarian Parliament for granted.

With the entry of Sweden and Finland, NATO confirms an enlargement that seemed impossible not so long ago. In 2019, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, assured that the Alliance was “brain dead” and the support of the United States during Donald Trump's mandate remained much more timid.. But the war in Ukraine has relaunched the organization, with a new Strategic Concept approved at the Madrid summit in 2022 and reinforcement also at a strategic and media level.. The next step will be, if nothing changes, the election of the new secretary general, a position for which the Dutch Prime Minister (now acting) Mark Rutte is a favorite.