March 30 () –
The Swedish Foreign Minister, Tobias Billstrom, has qualified his recent statements in which he stated that he was “completely convinced” of Stockholm’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance and now speaks of “great hopes” for the process to be completed before the NATO summit in Vilnius next July.
The person in charge of Swedish diplomacy has recognized that, taking into account the latest events and the refusal of Hungary and Turkey to give the definitive ‘green light’ to Sweden’s accession to NATO, these are “reasons” sufficient to “moderate the words” to the regard.
“I think ‘hopeful’ is better in this context,” acknowledged Billstrom, who thus alluded to the new criticism leveled against Stockholm by Budapest, which has already approved Finland’s entry into NATO, and Ankara. , which is negotiating this matter this Thursday.
Thus, Billstrom has regretted the harsh words launched from Hungary, which denounces “lack of respect” for the Central European country and “moral superiority” of the Swedish authorities when criticizing the Hungarian Judiciary, according to the Swedish public television channel, SVT.
“We don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be ratified. Those reasons have nothing to do with the Swedish request for NATO. It’s something completely different. It’s about what views the European Union had on Hungary,” he defended. the Swedish foreign minister.
In fact, Billstrom has pointed out that not only Sweden, but also Finland, has criticized Hungary’s democratic deficiencies but that, nevertheless, the Hungarian Parliament did give its final approval at the beginning of the week to Stockholm’s entry into the military alliance.
