Economy 11 December 2023, 1:15pm

Washington is putting pressure on Hungarian government via Senate resolution

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A draft resolution is already before the U.S. Senate in which Washington urges the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states to implement their agreed defence plans as quickly as possible and to ensure that the governments concerned provide sufficient resources for them. Washington's move devotes an entire paragraph to blocking Sweden's accession to NATO, putting pressure on the Hungarian and Turkish governments.

The draft resolution notes that

the 31-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the world’s preeminent military alliance, accounting for more than half of global defense expenditure and deploying the world’s most advanced military capabilities;
at the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, NATO allies adopted the Wales Defense Investment Pledge, agreeing to halt any decline in defense expenditure and move toward committing a minimum of 2 percent of their GDP on annual defense spending and allocating at least 20 percent of defense budgets on major equipment, including related research and development, within a decade
NATO’s defense posture and military capabilities were enhanced with the April 2023 accession of Finland, which exceeds 2 percent of GDP defense spending and possesses one of Europe’s largest and most capable armed forces;
following the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, defense spending within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has increased for nine consecutive years, resulting in additional defense expenditures of approximately $450 billion in real terms since 2014;
three members of NATO met the 2 percent of GDP defense spending target in 2014, NATO reports that as of July 2023, 11 allies met the 2 percent target, and all 31 allies met the goal to allocate at least 20 percent of defense expenditure to major new equipment;
19 NATO allies have a plan to meet or exceed NATO’s 2 percent of GDP defense spending target by 2024, and an additional seven members reportedly have plans in place to meet the target between 2025 and 2030;
at the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, allies unanimously adopted new regional defense plans and forcestructure requirements, which NATO military authorities characterize as the Alliance’s most comprehensive since the end of the Cold War.

The resolution states that

the ratification of Sweden as the newest member of the NATO alliance would add critical air and maritime capabilities to the collective security of Europe and North America, bring almost the entire Baltic coastline into the alliance, and expand the alliance’s expertise in the Arctic and undersea environments:

Now, therefore, it

urges Türkiye and Hungary to swiftly ratify Sweden as a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The added that NATO allies have made these additional contributions to collective security despite sharp inflation and record-high energy costs. European countries have taken in over four million Ukrainian refugees as a direct result of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has designated $18 billion in support for refugees, and European NATO members collectively have additionally allocated $4.6 billion to support refugees;

According to the resolution, the Senate (among other things)

supports the implementation of regional defense plans adopted at the 2023 Vilnius Summit to align forces and resources with NATO’s Strategic Concept adopted at the 2022 Madrid Summit;
urges swift implementation and resourcing of these plans in support of the collective defense of Europe and encourages NATO allies to align defense spending and resource allocation in accordance with these plans;
recommends the next Secretary General of NATO be selected from a member country that has met, or has a robust plan to meet, the 2 percent defense spending commitment.

The text, which would put pressure on both the Budapest and Ankara, has not yet been put to a vote, as it must first be approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the recent past, the U.S. government, NATO and the leadership of the European Union have repeatedly urged the Hungarian government to ratify Sweden's accession. So far, however, the government has not put the text on the Parliament's agenda. The cabinet, led by Viktor Orbán, claims that the Fidesz-KDNP caucus is divided for the time being, as Sweden has repeatedly criticised the functioning of Hungary's democratic system. With Orbán keeping his party on a tight leash, this argument sounds ridiculous to many critics of the cabinet.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has decided that the United States will conclude a defence agreement with Sweden, and will no longer wait for Hungarian and Turkish approvals for it to join NATO.