Hungary will ratify Sweden’s NATO membership only after Turkey, another country that opposes the move, signals that it is also ready to do so, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday, Bloomberg quoted Foreign Minister Peter as saying Sijarto.

“If there is movement there [de partea turcă]then, of course, we will respect our commitment that Hungary will not delay the accession of any country,” said the head of Hungarian diplomacy in comments to the press in Budapest.

He also said he would be in “close and constant” contact with his counterparts in Turkey in the coming days, and had already held numerous talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

President Recep Erdogan chose Fidan to lead Turkish diplomacy in his new cabinet, which he unveiled in early June, replacing Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who had served as Turkey’s foreign minister since 2016.

Both Hungary and Turkey are under pressure from NATO partners to drop their objections to Sweden joining NATO ahead of next week’s summit in Vilnius.

Peter Szijjarto also said on Tuesday that Budapest would hold consultations in the coming days “with the Swedes as well as NATO leaders” to try to break the deadlock.

What reasons does Hungary find for blocking Sweden’s accession to NATO

Hungary has cited its “bad relationship” with the Scandinavian country as justification for blocking its NATO entry, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party has repeatedly delayed a ratification vote in the Budapest parliament.

Sweden and its northern neighbor Finland abandoned decades of military neutrality after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last year, formally asking to be admitted to NATO in May.

Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its membership application. And then Hungary said that it would give the green light to join after Ankara’s statement on the matter.

Although the ratification of the two countries’ accession process has been blocked in the Hungarian parliament since July 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only spoke out against their accession in February. Among other criticisms, he accused the two Nordic countries of spreading “brazen” lies about the state of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.

At the end of May, Viktor Orbán again declared his opposition to Sweden joining NATO, citing the “terribly bad” relationship between Budapest and Stockholm.

His chief of staff had previously asked Swedish politicians to stop commenting on Hungary’s internal affairs, but claimed it was “clear as day that we support Sweden’s accession”.