BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The United States is "confident" that Sweden will soon be a member of NATO, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary said on Thursday, adding he had been assured by the Hungarian government that Budapest would not be the last to ratify the bid.
Relations between Budapest and Washington have soured because of Hungary's foot-dragging over the ratification of Sweden's NATO accession and also over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's warm ties with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.
"I have been repeatedly assured at the senior-most levels of this government that Hungary will not be last to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO," Ambassador David Pressman said.
Sweden's NATO membership is still pending ratification by Turkey and Hungary.
Budapest opposes Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Orban has for years cultivated close relations with Moscow - partly due to Hungary's continued energy dependence on Russia - and has held back from criticising President Vladimir Putin's actions.
In April, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a Budapest-based Russian bank called IIB, and called on Hungary to cut ties with what it described as an "opaque Kremlin-controlled platform". Hungary abandoned the bank days after the sanctions.
Pressman, who has sparred with the Hungarian government over LGBT rights and more recently over Orban's meeting with Putin in Beijing, said the United States was also concerned about a "sovereignty protection bill" flagged by the ruling Fidesz party.
Orban's Fidesz was expected to submit the bill to parliament on Tuesday, but it has been delayed. A Fidesz lawmaker in September said the new bill, which would target foreign influence, could apply to "left-wing journalists, quasi-civil organisations" and political parties.
"To the extent that this bill may seek to criminalise and or intimidate independent civil society and media organizations, that is very dangerous, and I hope that's not the path that Hungary chooses to go down," Pressman said.