​Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in a conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, confirmed his government’s “support” for Sweden’s entry into the alliance, Reuters and AFP reported.

Orbán added that he also told Stoltenberg during the phone call that he would continue to urge Hungary’s National Assembly to vote for Sweden’s entry into NATO and complete ratification as soon as possible.

“I confirmed to him again that the Hungarian government supports Sweden’s candidacy,” he said on X (formerly Twitter), adding that he would “continue to ask the parliament to complete the ratification as soon as possible.”

For his part, Stoltenberg posted on X that Hungary clearly supports Sweden’s entry into NATO and will soon ratify its application.

“Good conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. I welcome the clear support of the Prime Minister and his government for Sweden’s accession to NATO,” Stoltenberg said in a post on X.

“I look forward to ratification as soon as Parliament reconvenes.”

Orbán’s discussion with Stoltenberg comes in the context of Hungary remaining the only country not to ratify Sweden’s entry into NATO, and together with Turkey (whose parliament just approved Sweden’s candidacy, no) keeping the Scandinavian country at the gates of the Northern Alliance. Atlantic, although it applied at the same time as Finland, which already became a NATO member last year.

As Politico reports, the Hungarian prime minister asked his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristerson for a meeting and stressed the need for “strong mutual trust between Sweden and Hungary.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Björstrom on Tuesday rejected Hungary’s call for negotiations on his country’s NATO candidacy.

“I don’t see any reason for negotiations at the moment,” Tobias Billström said in response to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s offer.

Tobias Billström also said on Tuesday that Hungary, unlike Turkey, did not put forward any conditions when Sweden was invited to join the Western military alliance at the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid.

Budapest did not satisfy Stockholm’s criticism of its regression in terms of democracy.

• Read also: Hungary asks Sweden to stop commenting on its internal problems in order to ratify its accession to NATO

“I invite you to visit Hungary as soon as possible to exchange views on all matters of mutual interest, including our complex bilateral relations, our future security and defense cooperation as allies and partners, and Hungary’s future presidency of the Council of the European Union,” Viktor Orbán sent to Sweden in a letter obtained by Politico.

Billström noted that the “good” tone of the letter differs from Orbán’s initial tweet, which said: “Today I sent a letter inviting Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Hungary to negotiate Sweden’s NATO membership.”