Hungary Ratifies Sweden's NATO Accession

Facts

• Following 19 months of delays, Hungary's Parliament voted 188-6 on Monday to approve Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).¹
• Hungary's approval, which followed another long-awaited approval from Turkey last month, means Sweden will now enter into a military alliance for the first time in 200 years, according to outgoing Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.²
• While Turkey delayed its approval due to concerns over Kurdish groups, Hungary, who like Turkey has closer ties to Russia than other NATO members, appeared to stall the vote over Sweden's accusations of declining democracy under Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government.³
• Recent efforts to push Hungary included a visit by US senators last weekend to condemn Orban's government as well as a visit by Kristersson on Friday, after which he announced Sweden would sell Hungary four Swedish-made fighter jets.⁴
• Sweden's flag will reportedly join those of the other 31 member states later this week, including Finland, which also applied for membership in 2022 and joined the bloc in April 2023.⁵

Sources: ¹The New York Times, ²The Guardian, ³Reuters, ⁴Euronews and ⁵Forbes.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Wilson Center. NATO can now finally add Sweden's military and technological prowess to the international security bloc. Sweden is home to one of the biggest airforces in Europe, two of the leading 5G network manufacturing companies, and a robust public-private tech industry. The West is facing dangerous threats from the East, but some worries over security at least should be mitigated now that Sweden is part of the Atlantic Alliance.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by AntiWar. The US and its European proxies seem to have no care for world peace. After decades of NATO expansion eastward, Russia was finally forced to stop asking and start fighting. Now that the Western military establishment has gotten the war it's sought for at least 15 years — at the expense of 400K Ukrainian soldiers and 10K civilians — the bloc continues to push eastward and further antagonize Moscow. NATO expansion is a proven cause of war, so why do they keep doing it?

Predictions