Hungary, one of the two NATO member states that have not yet approved the bloc's expansion, will ratify the protocol on the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO on October 24, Eero Heinaluoma, a member of the European Parliament and former chairman of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, said on Sunday, APA reports citing UrduPoint News.
The lawmaker said he had received confirmation on this matter from his Hungarian colleagues from the Party of European Socialists (PES) during their two-day meeting in Berlin.
"Hungarian lawmakers said that there was firm support for Finnish and Swedish NATO membership and that the parliament would ratify the accessions at its session on October 24," Heinaluoma told the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper, but declined to reveal the Names of these lawmakers.
Socialist lawmakers in the Hungarian parliament proposed to hold a vote on Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO on October 4, but the motion was voted down by the ruling Fidesz party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungarian media reported.
This past summer, Orban said that the treaties on NATO enlargement would be considered in the fall.
On May 18, three months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO membership applications, abandoning decades of neutrality. Finland and Sweden are now awaiting the ratification of their NATO applications. As of October 16, 28 countries out of 30 have already completed the formal procedure to welcome Finland and Sweden to the alliance. Turkiye and Hungary are the only nations that have not ratified the applications.
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