Hungary approves NATO enlargement

Hungarian lawmakers have voted to support Finland's accession to NATO, clearing the way for Helsinki to join the US-led bloc after an upcoming vote in Türkiye. Sweden's own membership bid, however, remains stalled. Finland and Sweden both renounced their neutrality last summer and filed a joint application to join NATO, but Turkey has blocked the applications until both Helsinki and Stockholm commit to lifting arms embargoes on Ankara, extraditing alleged Kurdish and Gulenist terrorists, and investigating the activity of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated earlier this month that Helsinki had "taken concrete steps" toward meeting Ankara's demands, and announced that he would back Finland's membership. However, the Turkish government has accused Sweden of holding out on its promises, and tensions between Stockholm and Ankara were further inflamed by Swedish authorities' refusal to stop Koran-burning protests earlier this year. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban initially pledged to support membership for both Finland and Sweden, then said in February that he would first have to have "serious discussions" about both countries' role in "spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here." Orban's chief adviser, Balazs Orban, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that the deadlock with Sweden has not been resolved.