Hungary ratifies Finland´s NATO accession protocol

The Hungarian parliament on Monday ratified the NATO membership protocol for Finland, according to the Defence Minister and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

“The Hungarian Parliament has ratified Finland's NATO membership. Good and expected news,” Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen wrote in his twitter in Finnish late Monday night.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a separate twitter post wrote that Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto thanked the Hungarian National Assembly for the ratification.

”Köszönöm! Grateful for the Hungarian National Assembly for the decision to ratify Finland's Accession Protocol,” the ministry wrote in the twitter post, qouting Haavisto as saying late Monday night.

A total of 182 members of parliament voted in favor and six against, while 11 lawmakers were absent. Besides the far-right party Mi Hazank (Our Homeland), all parties voted in favor of Finland's accession, reported Xinhua.

The Hungarian parliament originally tabled to vote on the ratification of the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO in the last trimester of 2022, but had since decided to hold two separate votes.

Before Monday's vote, the Hungarian parliament sent a delegation on a "courtesy visit" to Finland and Sweden, to inquire as to why Helsinki and Stockholm had criticized Hungary's democratic institutions.

Earlier on March 20, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto confirmed that his country will ratify NATO membership protocol for Finland on March 27.

On March 17, Hungarian ruling party Fidesz 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.

With Hungary´s ratification, so far 29 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocol for Finland.

Turkey is the only NATO member to rafity the membership and the countty already initiated the move in this regard.

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, Slovakia and Hungary.

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.