Hungary likely to ratify Finland´s NATO joining on March 27

Hungarian ruling party Fidesz on Friday announced that the parliament of the country will vote on Finland´s NATO accession protocol on March 27 and the party will unanimously support in favour of Finland´s membership.

“On behalf of the Fidesz faction, I inform you that we have decided to support Finland's accession to NATO. The parliamentary vote on this will be brought forward to 27 March, and we will vote unanimously yes,” the chair of its parliamentary group, Máté Kocsis wrote in a Facebook post.

He, however, wrote that in the case of Sweden, the delegation will decide later.

Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO members out of the 30-member alliance, who did not ratify the accession protocol of Finland and Sweden.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said that his country will begin the process of ratifying Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

Hungary has delayed the ratification process several times despite assurance made by it leaders.

In November, 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban assured President Sauli Niinistö that his country will ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

The assurance was made during a telephone conversation between Niinistö and Orban.

Their accession procedure officially started in early July after 30 NATO members, including Turkey signed accession protocols.

So far 28 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden.

The countries ratified the membership protocols are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Slovakia.

In late June, the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications.