Hungary voted to support Finland’s accession to NATO, ending months of foot-dragging by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and leaving the Nordic country one step away from joining the defense alliance.
While lawmakers in Budapest voted overwhelmingly to support Finland’s membership on Monday, they also kept neighboring Sweden’s application on ice in a dispute that Orban’s party has linked to a clash inside the European Union over the rule of law.
The ratification followed Turkey’s decision to support the Finnish bid last week. Hungary and Turkey are the last holdouts among the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 30 members to approve expansion toward Russia’s Nordic borders after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
