Hungary snubs US senators pushing for Sweden’s entry into Nato

BUDAPEST – Hungary, the last holdout blocking Sweden’s entry into Nato, thumbed its nose over the weekend at the United States, declining to meet a bipartisan delegation of senators who had come to press the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban to swiftly approve the Nordic nation’s entry into the military alliance.

The snub, which Senator Chris Murphy described on Feb 18 as “strange and concerning”, represented the latest effort by Mr Orban, a stalwart champion of national sovereignty, to show he will not submit to outside pressure over Nato’s long-stalled expansion.

Despite having only 10 million people and accounting for only 1 per cent of the European Union’s economic output, Hungary under Mr Orban has made defiance of more powerful countries its guiding philosophy.

“Hungary before all else,” Mr Orban said on Feb 17 at the end of a state of the nation address, in which he said Europe’s policy of supporting Ukraine had “failed spectacularly”.

Legislators from Mr Orban’s governing Fidesz party and government ministers declined to meet the visiting US senators, all of whom are robust supporters of Ukraine.

“I’m disappointed to say that nobody from the government would meet us while we were here,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who is co-chair of the Senate’s Nato Observer Group, said on Feb 18 at a news conference.

Speaking a day earlier in Budapest, Hungary’s capital, Mr Orban restated his previous commitment – so far reneged on – to let Sweden into the alliance as soon as possible.

“We are on course to ratify Sweden’s accession to Nato at the beginning of Parliament’s spring session,” he said.

Mr Orban, whose party has a large majority in Parliament and controls when it meets and how it votes, gave no date, but legislators are expected to reconvene at the end of February after a winter break.

Fidesz legislators boycotted a session of Parliament called earlier in February by the opposition to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership.

After more than 18 months of foot-dragging, Hungary has come under intense pressure from the US and other members of the 31-nation alliance to accept Sweden, whose military is far bigger and more sophisticated than that of Hungary.

In a sign of mounting frustration, the visiting senators, including Senator Thom Tillis, said they would introduce a resolution in the Senate urging Hungary to stop stalling and expressing concern about democratic backsliding under Mr Orban.

Hungary became the final obstacle to Sweden’s admission after Turkey’s Parliament voted in January to approve its membership.

The visiting Americans voiced optimism that Mr Orban would soon relent on admitting Sweden, just as he did in January, after months of obstruction, in approving a European Union aid package to Ukraine worth US$54 billion (S$72.7 billion).

“We are hopeful and optimistic that it will happen on the 26th when Parliament meets,” Ms Shaheen said.

Mr Tillis urged Hungary, which has opposed sending weapons to Ukraine and maintains cordial relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to understand that “Putin’s actions are the reason we are expanding Nato”.

Every member of the alliance, he said, “should understand that the response to Putin’s hostility should be a stronger Nato, and there is no better way to do that than to admit Sweden”. NYTIMES