BUDAPEST, November 30. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto assured his colleagues from Sweden and Finland that the Hungarian parliament would approve their countries' entry into NATO early next year.
Szijjarto met his counterparts from Sweden and Finland in Bucharest, where a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO countries is taking place.
"Sweden and Finland are interested in joining NATO. Today I assured two of my colleagues that because of us, their entry, which requires the consent of all NATO members, will not be delayed even a single day," Szijjarto said in a video message posted on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
"The parliament's agenda is now determined by the debate on the bills requested by the European Commission, but at the beginning of next year there will be an opportunity to discuss the ratification [of the protocols on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO]," Szijjarto said.
Hungary and Turkey are the only countries out of all 30 states of the North Atlantic Alliance that have not yet approved the admission of two new candidates.
Earlier it became known that contrary to initial expectations the State Assembly (unicameral parliament) of Hungary will not ratify the agreements on the entry of Finland and Sweden into the alliance this year.
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the deputies would consider this issue only after the New Year. On November 24, at a press conference after the meeting of the heads of government of the Visegrad Group countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) in the Slovak city of Kosice, Orban said that this issue would be on the agenda of the first session of parliament in 2023.
The Hungarian government hoped that the parliament would ratify the protocols on Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO before the end of the autumn session, which will last until mid-December. Szijjarto presented the bills on the ratification of these protocols to deputies on July 14, but the issue has not yet been considered in parliament. Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Alliance on May 18, saying they were spurred on by the events in Ukraine.