BUDAPEST, Hungary – A bipartisan delegation of US senators made an official visit Sunday to Hungary's capital and called on the nationalist government to immediately approve Sweden's application for NATO membership.
Hungary is the only country among the 31 NATO member countries that has not ratified Sweden's request for membership. Hungary's government is facing mounting pressure to act, having delayed approval for around 18 months. Accepting a new country into the Western military alliance requires unanimous approval.
American senators announced that they will present a joint resolution to Congress that will criticize the steps behind democracy in Hungary and call on Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to stop blocking Sweden's Euro-Atlantic integration.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
“With ratification, Hungary and your prime minister would do a great service to freedom-loving countries around the world,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis, during a press conference at the US embassy in Budapest.
The resolution, first reported Sunday by the Associated Press news agency, was drafted by Sen. Tillis and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Together with them in the delegation in Budapest was the Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
Earlier this month, Democratic senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on Hungary over its behavior and called Mr Orban “the least stable member of NATO”.
In the draft resolution, the senators point out “the important role that Hungary can have for European and trans-Atlantic security”, but mention that it did not adhere to its commitment not to remain the last country in NATO that would approve the membership of Sweden.
Senatori Chris Murphy
The resolution states that Hungary “did not join the other NATO member states in approving Sweden's accession to NATO, thus failing to fulfill a pledge that it would not be the last to approve this membership and thus endangering trans security -Atlantic at a key moment for peace and stability in Europe”.
Mr Orban, a staunch nationalist who has led Hungary since 2010, has said he is in favor of Sweden joining NATO but that his party's lawmakers remain unconvinced because of “blatant lies” by Swedish politicians about the state of democracy in Hungary.
However, in a major speech in Budapest on Saturday, Mr Orban signaled that the Hungarian parliament could change its mind soon.
“It is good news that our dispute with Sweden is coming to a conclusion,” he said. “We are moving towards the ratification of Sweden's membership in NATO at the beginning of the spring parliamentary session.”
On Sunday, Senator Shaheen said it was “disappointing” that none of the members of the Hungarian government had accepted the invitation to meet the US delegation, but said she was hopeful and optimistic that Sweden's membership would be considered on February 26 when the legislature Hungarian to resume work.
Senator Murphy said Mr Orban's government's refusal to meet was “strange and worrying” but that the onus remained on the Hungarian leader to push parliament to vote to ratify Sweden's membership.
“We have enough knowledge of the politics here to know that if Prime Minister Orban wants this to happen, then the parliament will act,” he said.
Mr. Orban speaking to supporters (February 17, 2024)
The senators' draft resolution criticizes Mr Orban's increasingly warm relations with Russia and China, and notes that while Hungary has opened its doors to Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia's onslaught, it has also “resisted and weakened them European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation”.
Mr. Orban, who is widely regarded as the Kremlin's closest ally in the European Union, has long been criticized for not implementing the union's standards for democracy and the functioning of the rule of law. The European Union has suspended billions of dollars in funding for Budapest for violating union rules.
Hungary's government has also taken an increasingly confrontational approach to President Joe Biden's administration, accusing the United States of trying to influence Hungarian public life.
Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's foreign minister, said Friday that he welcomes the senators' visit, but that “it is not worth the effort to put pressure on us, as we are a sovereign country.”
“We are glad that they come here because they can see for themselves that everything they have read about Hungary in the American liberal media is a blatant lie,” said Mr. Szijjarto.