Hungary to delay vote on NATO membership for Sweden, Finland

Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A long-delayed vote in Hungary’s parliament on ratifying the NATO accession bids of Sweden and Finland will likely be postponed again following a proposal from a senior government official. Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen on Tuesday requested that a parliamentary session scheduled to begin on March 20 — during which lawmakers were expected to vote on the two Nordic countries joining the military alliance — be postponed to a week later. Hungary remains the only NATO member country besides Turkey that hasn’t yet approved the two Nordic countries’ bids to join the Western military alliance. The delay is the second in two weeks and only the latest of many that have come in succession since July 2022.