It’s been an unusually busy day for news out of Hungary. Definitely on the plus side, It looks like the Hungarian Parliament is really (this time for sure?) going to ‘allow’ Sweden into NATO when it meets next Monday. From the AP:
Hungary's governing party says it's ready to approve Sweden's NATO accession on Monday
A vote in Hungary's parliament on ratifying Sweden's bid to join NATO could come as early as Monday, according to a senior member of the country's governing Fidesz party. It would bring an end to more than 18 months of delays by the nationalist government that have frustrated Hungary's allies.
In a letter on Tuesday to the speaker of the parliament, the head of the Fidesz caucus, Máté Kocsis, requested that a vote be scheduled for the opening day of the spring session, which begins on Monday.
Kocsis wrote that Fidesz, which has repeatedly blocked a vote on the matter, will opt to support Sweden's bid to join the trans-Atlantic military alliance.
Hungary is the only one of NATO’s 31 existing members not to have ratified Sweden’s bid. The Hungarian government faces mounting pressure to act after delaying the move for more than 1 1/2-year since admitting a new country to the military alliance requires unanimous approval.
By a curious coincidence(?), it was also reported today in USnews.com that the Swedish PM would be paying a curtesy call in Budapest this Friday:
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will travel to Budapest on Friday to meet Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban before Hungary's parliament takes a long-delayed vote on Sweden's bid for NATO membership next Monday.
Sweden applied to join the transatlantic alliance nearly two years ago in a historic policy shift away from non-alignment prompted by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Hungary is the only NATO member that has yet to ratify the Nordic country's accession, with Orban's nationalist party repeatedly delaying a vote, citing grievances over Sweden criticising Hungary over its record on rule-of-law standards.
Orban said on Tuesday that it would be a "pleasure" to welcome Kristersson in Budapest.
Also in the good news column, from Uktainska Pravda:
Hungary's foreign minister to not block 13th EU sanctions package
Peter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, has said that Budapest will not block the 13th package of EU sanctions against Russia following the meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the EU member states on 19 February.
Szijjártó said that all elements of the 13th EU sanctions package against Russia which "harm Hungary’s interests" had been eliminated so Hungary would not oppose it. However, Szijjártó still criticised the EU policy.
Quote: "Fundamental economic interests of Hungary are not violated by concrete measures from the sanctions list but the problem is way broader: the EU continues the strategy which has failed completely and does not bring us closer to peace, but moves us farther from it."
So while Hungary is still not very happy with the EU sanctions against Russia, they’re at least not standing in the way at this point. I wonder if Navalny’s murder might have had anything to do with the apparent volte-face?
Then we have this from the Jerusalem Post, which could only be considered ‘good news’ if you’re Israel/Netanyahu:
Hungary blocks two EU statements against Israel's war in Gaza
Hungary has twice blocked a European Union consensus statement against the IDF’s pending military operation against Hamas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a consensus that called for an “immediate humanitarian pause” to the war, leading to a permanent ceasefire, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
“Hungary stood alone in the EU,” senior diplomatic sources said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had twice attempted to issue a consensus statement with the support of all 27 member states of the bloc.
He first tried to issue such a statement on the sideline of the Munich Security Conference in Berlin over the weekend and again during a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The Post has learned that Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who was at the Munich Security Conference, had personally called Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and asked that he help Israel block the statement.
According to senior diplomatic sources, Szijjártó then called Katz back to assure him that Hungary had backed Israel, explaining that he had “prevented it.” Katz then updated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
…
Israel has insisted that it must be allowed to destroy Hamas’s last stronghold, which is Rafah, or it would be impossible to defeat the terror group.
The statement approved by the 26 EU states asked the IDF not to “take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
Borrell also reported that the EU lacked consensus to adopt sanctions against West Bank settlers who have acted violently against innocent Palestinians, again failing to name the countries that objected.
The Post has also learned that Hungary objected to the issuance of such sanctions.
And finally, in what could be in the really bad news column, there is this little gem from Reuters:
In unusual move, China offers to back Hungary in security matters
China offered to support long-time strategic partner Hungary on public security issues, going beyond trade and investment relations, during a rare meeting of a senior Beijing official with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
China hopes to deepen law enforcement and security ties with Hungary as the two mark their 75th year of diplomatic relations, Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong told Orban last week, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
During a visit to Budapest, Wang said he hoped such efforts would be "a new highlight of bilateral relations" in areas such as combating terrorism and trans-national crimes.
They would also encompass security and law enforcement capacity building under President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to link China with the world through trade and infrastructure links.
…
China has been critical of NATO, especially after the bloc said last year that Beijing had challenged its interests, security and values with its "ambitions and coercive policies".
Chinese state media have called NATO a "grave" challenge to global peace and stability.
The security pact with Hungary represents a diplomatic win for China in the European Union, as the bloc weighs its ties with the world's second-largest economy over differences on human rights, trade imbalances and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The central European country's growing affinity to Beijing has already put a wedge in the EU's collective front.
On several occasions, Hungary has stood aside or opposed EU positions critical of China on issues such as human rights, and welcomed Chinese investments despite the EU's call for members to align relations with China with those of the bloc.
Hungary is home to Huawei Technologies' largest logistics and manufacturing base outside China, despite European Commission warnings that the telecom giant poses a risk to EU security.
So it’s not enough that Hungary serves as willing cat’s-paw for Putin in both NATO and the EU, now Xi apparently wants a piece of that action to!?