STOCKHOLM: Sweden will not negotiate with Hungary over its application to join Nato, Swedish Prime Minster Ulf Kristersson said on Friday.

       Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, however, said he now expected Hungary’s parliament to give a green light at the end of next month when it reconvenes.

       Sweden, along with Finland, applied to join the alliance in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But its membership has been held up by Turkiye and Hungary, leaving the country in limbo and frustrating Nato allies, who see Sweden as a key player in ensuring security in the Baltic region.

       Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signed Sweden’s accession documents on Friday, leaving Hungary as the last holdout. The Swedish and Hungarian prime ministers will meet next week at the European Council meeting in Brussels, but Kristersson said Sweden would not make any new promises on Nato.

       “No demands that are related to Nato membership — that’s not on the table,” Kristersson told Sweden’s TV4.

       However, he said, the two countries had much to discuss, including cooperation inside Nato, Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency, support for Ukraine and how to get the widest synergies from their air forces sharing the same fighter jet programme — Sweden’s JAS Gripen.

       All of Nato’s 31 members have to ratify an applicant country’s accession before it can join the alliance and Orban has been angered by Swedish criticism of democratic developments under his government.

       “I think Viktor Orban wants to remind estern countries every now and then ‘don’t criticise us because … if you do, we have cards which we will play at the right point in time’,” Zoltan Pogatsa, a lecturer specialising in European integration at the University of West Hungary, said. Orban has invited Kristersson to Budapest for negotiations over Nato, but he also repeated this week that his country supports Swedish membership.

       Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024