FM: Government maintains a "positive approach" to Sweden's NATO accession

 

Following talks by phone with Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna on Monday, the foreign minister said he had reassured him that the government’s positive approach to Sweden’s NATO bid was unchanged and that the bill approving Sweden’s membership had long ago been submitted to parliament. “I informed the minister that we have invited Sweden’s prime minister to Hungary, and I hope he will accept the invitation and come because that will prove that this is indeed an important matter for Sweden,” he said during a break in a cabinet meeting in Sopronbánfalva, in north-western Hungary. Minister Szijjártó said he and Tsahkna had also discussed the sanctions imposed on Russia, underlining that Hungary’s position was clear on this matter as well. “We believe the sanctions policy has failed, so we don’t see a reason to approve more sanctions packages,” he said, noting that the European Union plans to approve more sanctions against Russia on the occasion of the coming second anniversary of the outbreak of the war.