US urges Hungary to greenlight Sweden's NATO entry; Budapest disappoints countries looking to fund Kiev

On January 26, Reuters reported that White House spokesman John Kirby said the US is urging Hungary to quickly move forward with accepting Sweden as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Mỹ kêu gọi Hungary nhanh chóng chấp thuận Thụy Điển gia nhập NATO. (Nguồn: WSJ)

The US calls on Hungary to quickly accept Sweden's accession to NATO. (Source: WSJ)

Hungary has become the last NATO country yet to give Sweden the legal green light to become a member after the Turkish parliament approved Stockholm's application on January 23 and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signed off on January 25.

In other news related to Hungary, on the same day, January 26, a senior European Union (EU) official said that negotiations on increasing the bloc's financial aid to Ukraine are becoming "more complicated" due to Hungary's lack of flexibility on this issue.

Relations between Budapest and Kiev have been strained by Hungary's opposition to providing 50 billion euros ($54.3 billion) in aid to Ukraine from the EU budget at a summit in December 2023.

EU leaders will try again to reach agreement on the package at another summit on February 1.

According to the same official, countries that want to aid Kiev are increasingly disappointed with Hungary's attitude.

Some ideas proposed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, such as that aid to Ukraine should be reviewed and approved unanimously every year, have not been accepted by other EU members.

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