Hungary has delayed ratifying Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids – but Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it would be approved early next year.

Orban told a briefing after a meeting with the Visegrad Group in Slovakia that his government had already decided that Hungary would support Finland and Sweden’s NATO accession and parliament would put this item on its agenda at its first session next year.

“Hungary will certainly give its support to their accession, after the government had done so, the parliament will too,” Orban said. Parliament normally meets in mid-February.

Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance that have not yet approved the accession.

The Hungarian government tabled the relevant legislation in July but parliament, where Orban’s ruling Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority, has yet to submit the two bills for debate and approval.

Orban is seen as an ally of Putin despite being a member of NATO and the European Union.

The leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic publicly criticized Orban on Thursday, exposing tensions within central Europe’s Visegrad bloc that have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Unity within the Visegrad Group, formed in 1991 as the region emerged from decades of communist rule, has been sorely tested by the war, with Orban opposing tougher European sanctions on Russia, including energy supplies.

Hungary’s three neighbors in Visegrad – which also includes Slovakia – are, on the other hand, among the EU’s harshest critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine.

“This is not the best time for the (Visegrad) format, and Hungary’s different attitudes significantly affect and complicate the situation,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on his way to a meeting with Visegrad leaders in Slovakia.

“I make no secret that the views of the Hungarian Prime Minister, some of which can even be described as provocative, do not help this cooperation to progress as well as before,” Fiala added.

This week Orban further irritated his neighbors by wearing a “Greater Hungary” scarf to a soccer match – showing territory now in Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia and Serbia as part of Hungary, drawing sharp criticism from neighbors.