Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he is "cautiously optimistic" that he will overcome Hungarian opposition to him becoming the next head of NATO, UNN reports citing AFP.
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Having won the support of key powers, Rutte is a clear favorite to lead the alliance after the current leader Jens Stoltenberg's term expires this year, the publication points out.
But as noted, he struggled to defeat Orban and still faces competition from the only other candidate, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
"I am cautiously optimistic about Hungary," Rutte told reporters after meeting with Orban on the sidelines of the EU summit in Brussels.
This month, Orban said he might drop his objections if Rutte apologized for previous comments critical of the right-wing government in Budapest and allowed Hungary to stay out of NATO's plans to increase aid to Ukraine.
Rutte said that Orban "did not apologize, and I said that I obviously took note of what happened in Hungary in terms of the public reaction to what I said a few years ago.
"We left it at that, taking note and looking very much to the future, and he did not ask for any apology," Rutte said, adding that he would now write a letter to Orban summarizing their talks.
For his part, Orbán said that Rutte could win his support if he agrees to honor the agreement Stoltenberg made last week in Budapest to give Hungary the right to opt out of NATO's plans to help Ukraine.
"If he is ready to support us, we can do it," Orban said.
"It's about the future, not the past," he added.
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NATO's leading powers, led by the United States, are seeking to reach an agreement on a new head of the alliance before next month's summit in Washington, the newspaper notes.
Rutte, who is currently acting prime minister, is set to leave his post in the coming weeks when a new Dutch government is appointed.