Sweden and Finland set to join NATO in May

[President Johnson]

Do I trust Orban? Heck no. But I'll take it over nothing:

"Hungary's parliament will be ready to ratify Sweden's NATO membership when it convenes for its spring session, which begins at the end of this month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said."

I think he probably will follow through after Erdo backed off earlier. Orban has already dropped his opposition to further aid to Ukraine at the last EU leader summit, mainly due to increasing pressure by Scholz and Macron.

[Middle-aged Europe]

On Monday it's time to pack out the Köttbullar, because the Hungarian parliament will finally ratify Sweden's NATO membership:

https://apnews.com/article/hungary-sweden-nato-82e23abfcb355e6ecd791544cfb034b8

[President Johnson]

On Monday it's time to pack out the Köttbullar, because the Hungarian parliament will finally ratify Sweden's NATO membership:

https://apnews.com/article/hungary-sweden-nato-82e23abfcb355e6ecd791544cfb034b8

Another strategic win for Vladimir Putin.

[Frodo]

Has Hungary done it yet, finally?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Has Hungary done it yet, finally?

Scheduled it for Monday the 26th, supposedly.

[Storr]

The oaf gets his press conference, says Swedish NATO accession vote will happen Monday:

"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his country had opened a new phase with Sweden during a joint press conference with Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson on Friday as Budapest prepares to ratify Stockholm’s long-delayed NATO bid."

"Orban, who said last week that the Hungarian Parliament would vote on ratification on Monday, met with Kristersson on Friday and announced at the press conference that Hungary had bought four fighter jets from Sweden."

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/23/europe/hungary-viktor-orban-sweden-nato/index.html

[Frodo]

Until they have a new President, Hungary is still going to stall on this agreement even after their National Assembly passes it on Monday, assuming they keep their word:

Even if Hungary’s parliament votes in Sweden’s favour on Monday as expected, there could yet be room for more potential stalling as it will still need to be signed by the president. Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, recently announced her resignation, so the appointment of a new president and the decision on Sweden’s Nato application could potentially overlap, meaning that it could yet be sent to the constitutional court.

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1762142508836933634?s=20

[Hindsight was 2020]

It’s official

[Gass3268]

Did Hungary get anything out of this? At least Turkey got some fighter jets.

[Storr]

Did Hungary get anything out of this? At least Turkey got some fighter jets.

Hungary ordered four more Gripen fighter jets from Saab. It already leases 14 of them from Sweden.

https://www.saab.com/newsroom/press-releases/2024/saab-receives-gripen-order-for-hungary

Edit: According to this Swedish article (used google translate, so usual caveats apply), the recent resignation of the President shouldn't be an issue: "The next step is for the speaker, in his capacity as acting president, to sign the decision. It can take up to five days."

[President Johnson]

Until they have a new President, Hungary is still going to stall on this agreement even after their National Assembly passes it on Monday, assuming they keep their word:

Even if Hungary’s parliament votes in Sweden’s favour on Monday as expected, there could yet be room for more potential stalling as it will still need to be signed by the president. Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, recently announced her resignation, so the appointment of a new president and the decision on Sweden’s Nato application could potentially overlap, meaning that it could yet be sent to the constitutional court.

Kind of weird. The speaker of the Assembly has become acting president until March 5.

[Frodo]

Hungary gets new president following scandal

Last week, ruling party Fidesz nominated Constitutional Court head Tamas Sulyok, 67, to replace Novak, Hungary's first woman president.

On Monday, parliament -- where Fidesz' ruling coalition with the Christian Democratic KDNP holds a two-thirds majority -- approved his appointment, after which he took the oath of office.

He will become president on March 5.

Little known to the broader public, Sulyok became a constitutional court judge in 2014 and, two years later, the court's head.

The opposition has criticised the nomination of politically inexperienced Sulyok.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Welcome to NATO, Sweden! Lake NATO is here!

[Blue3]

There's still Kaliningrad.

[CumbrianLefty]

There's still Kaliningrad.

Now completely surrounded, on land and sea, by NATO members.

[Pericles]

Orban isn't going to get any goodwill for this childish ego trip he pulled, hope it was worth it for him.

[CumbrianLefty]

Orban isn't going to get any goodwill for this childish ego trip he pulled, hope it was worth it for him.

His mate Putin might thank him for it.

[Storr]

There's still Kaliningrad.

Now completely surrounded, on land and sea, by NATO members.

An interesting alternate history scenario is if Kaliningrad was given to Lithuania, like Crimea was given to Ukraine in the early Kruschev period. Now that I think about it, another interesting scenario would have been if the Ukrainian SSR leadership refused the transfer of Crimea to their control because of similar reasons why the Lithuanian SSR refused adding Kaliningrad:
"In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev offered the entire Kaliningrad Oblast to the Lithuanian SSR but Antanas Sniečkus refused to accept the territory because it would add at least a million ethnic Russians to Lithuania proper."

[Wiswylfen]

NATO is an alliance expressly aimed at strengthening member states' national security. Turkey has been a member for decades while Finland and Sweden now want to be in. If Finland and Sweden are actually supporting Kurdish independence fighters using violent means, I don't think it is strange at all for Turkey to demand concessions before they can enter NATO. And I also think it is ridiculous for Swedish foreign policy to be hijacked by one Kurdish MP who apparently holds a massive amount of power.

Yeah I actually agree with this. No love for Erdogran, but the PKK are terrorists and if Sweden is turning a blind eye to them that deserves a response.

They are terrorists in the sense that the US (and UK) desperately want Turkey on-side, and officially designating them terrorists is the price. Turning a blind eye to Turkish genocide is a price they are very willing to pay. Same reason why the West didn't come rushing to the aid of the Armenians in the way it has with Ukraine...

No, the PKK really are terrorists. For example:
https://www.france24.com/en/20160314-turkey-strikes-kurdish-targets-iraq-after-deadly-suicide-bombing-ankara

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Note, for example, the Jews in Israel conducted many bombings against British targets before independence, in part because of discriminatory policies.

Indeed, and they were - and are - widely regarded as terrorist groups for doing so.

By their targets, and various other Jew-haters, yes.

"You're saying the Irgun were terrorists? Racist." I wish I could be so based and right-wing as to accuse anyone who suggests that perhaps terrorists are terrorists of being racist. I hate to think of how you'd react to the suggestion that perhaps a state that continues to celebrate their terrorists and the murders of our civilians and soldiers is not in any way our friend.

[Sir Mohamed]

There's still Kaliningrad.

Now completely surrounded, on land and sea, by NATO members.

Kaliningrad is possibly less endangered than the Suwalki gap in case of a NATO-Russia military confrontation. Sweden becoming a member of NATO is massive gain for the Baltics though, as potential supplies of additional troops and material could easily go through Sweden (and Finland to a degree). From what I'm reading, Gotland Island is the most important strategic location of NATO in the entire Baltic Sea.

[Illiniwek]

There's still Kaliningrad.

Now completely surrounded, on land and sea, by NATO members.

An interesting alternate history scenario is if Kaliningrad was given to Lithuania, like Crimea was given to Ukraine in the early Kruschev period. Now that I think about it, another interesting scenario would have been if the Ukrainian SSR leadership refused the transfer of Crimea to their control because of similar reasons why the Lithuanian SSR refused adding Kaliningrad:
"In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev offered the entire Kaliningrad Oblast to the Lithuanian SSR but Antanas Sniečkus refused to accept the territory because it would add at least a million ethnic Russians to Lithuania proper."

Amazing foresight on the part of the Lithuanians. There is no doubt that had there been 1+ million Russians in Lithuania for decades it would have created a very volatile situation upon the breakup of the USSR, and Lithuania could have possibly found itself in either Belarus' shoes as a Russian puppet state or in Ukraine's shoes as a target for invasion in the name of "protecting ethnic Russian's interests."

[Sol]

There's still Kaliningrad.

Now completely surrounded, on land and sea, by NATO members.

An interesting alternate history scenario is if Kaliningrad was given to Lithuania, like Crimea was given to Ukraine in the early Kruschev period. Now that I think about it, another interesting scenario would have been if the Ukrainian SSR leadership refused the transfer of Crimea to their control because of similar reasons why the Lithuanian SSR refused adding Kaliningrad:
"In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev offered the entire Kaliningrad Oblast to the Lithuanian SSR but Antanas Sniečkus refused to accept the territory because it would add at least a million ethnic Russians to Lithuania proper."

Amazing foresight on the part of the Lithuanians. There is no doubt that had there been 1+ million Russians in Lithuania for decades it would have created a very volatile situation upon the breakup of the USSR, and Lithuania could have possibly found itself in either Belarus' shoes as a Russian puppet state or in Ukraine's shoes as a target for invasion in the name of "protecting ethnic Russian's interests."

Lithuania is actually substantially less ethnically Russian than the other two Baltic states; a Lithuania with Kaliningrad is about 30% Russian, which is more that Latvia but not too much more. I don't know if it would be too different?

[Storr]

The Hungarian Parliament's website says Sweden's NATO accession treaty was signed by the President of the Parliament and sent to the President of the Republic on the 2nd.

https://www.parlament.hu/web/guest/folyamatban-levo-torvenyjavaslatok?p_p_id=hu_parlament_cms_pair_portlet_PairProxy_INSTANCE_9xd2Wc9jP4z8&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_auth=JRw4Bkg8&_hu_parlament_cms_pair_portlet_PairProxy_INSTANCE_9xd2Wc9jP4z8_pairAction=%2Finternet%2Fcplsql%2Fogy_irom.irom_adat%3Fp_ckl%3D42%26p_izon%3D638

[Storr]

"05 MARCH 2024 16:03 The President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok today signed the decision of the Parliament on February 26, 2024 on Sweden's accession to NATO."

https://www.sandorpalota.hu/hu/az-uj-allamfo-elso-dontese