With 450,295 square kilometers, Sweden is the largest Nordic country by area size, followed by Finland and Norway. This makes it the fifth largest country in Europe. Despite this characteristic Sweden is still trying to enter NATO, an inter-governmental military alliance since the year 1949.
Though it is a fact that Hungary prepares to remove the final barrier to Sweden’s joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This Nordic country lagged behind owing to the global outcry over a series of public Qur’an burnings in the country. The Nordic region, or Norden, may be defined as consisting of the five sovereign states Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Even if Hungary’s parliament votes in favour of Sweden as staunchly expected, there could yet be a chance for more potential impasse as it will still require to be signed by the president. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reinvigorated NATO as in May 2022 Finland and Sweden applied to join it. Finland was admitted in April, but Sweden’s accession has been blocked by Turkey, one of NATO’s 31 members, ostensibly because the Nordic country harbours Kurdish separatists. Notwithstanding, this barrier has now been removed after Turkey’s okay.
In the meantime, the news of resignation of Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, has led to the likelihood of superimposing between the appointment of a new president and the resolve on Swedish NATO application, which could still be forwarded to the constitutional court.
Finland’s ratification went ahead at record speed, with its official joining on July last. Sweden and Hungary have said they are prepared to die for each other as their prime ministers meet in Budapest. After months of diplomatic wrangling, Ulf Kristersson travelled to the Hungarian capital at the invitation of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for the highly anticipated meeting.