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Holding on to power: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
Photo: Leszek Szymanski / EPA
Hungary does not want to ratify Sweden and Finland's NATO membership until next year.
"As we have already informed Sweden and Finland, Hungary supports the NATO membership of these two countries," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told journalists.
Ratification will be on the agenda for next year's first session of Parliament, he said.
All alliance members must agree to the admission of the two Nordic countries to NATO.
Apart from Hungary and Turkey, all NATO member states have already opened the way for Sweden and Finland to join the alliance.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Sweden and Finland broke with their decades-long tradition of military alliance neutrality and applied for NATO membership in May.
Opposition: EU blackmail
Hungary's ruling party, Fidesz, has repeatedly refused to schedule a parliamentary vote on the issue, despite stressing that it supports the two countries' accession to NATO.
At the beginning of November, Orbán's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, declared that Hungary first had to adopt the anti-corruption reforms proposed by Brussels before parliament could turn to the NATO issue.
EU member Hungary is negotiating with Brussels over the release of billions of dollars in EU funds to the country, which are currently being held up over corruption concerns.
The opposition had repeatedly called for NATO ratification to be put on the agenda.
The Socialist Party called the refusal "incomprehensible and unjustified," while the Momentum movement accused the government of "blackmailing" Brussels.
atb/AFP/dpa