Hungary's foreign minister said his country cannot support the bid of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become the secretary-general of NATO to replace Jens Stoltenberg.

"We certainly cannot support the election of a person as NATO secretary general who previously wanted to bring Hungary to its knees," Péter Szijjártó said at a news conference in Budapest. "It would be very strange if the candidacy of such a person was supported by the Hungarian government."

Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, was a strong advocate for rules making access to the European Union's budget conditional on meeting the bloc's rule of law standards, which led to billions of euros being withheld from Hungary.

Rutte is now seeking to replace Jens Stoltenberg as secretary-general of the 31-nation Western military alliance.

But he needs the support of every NATO member state to get the job, meaning Hungary has the power to veto. There are currently no other publicly declared candidates.

Rutte has strong backing from Britain, Germany and the United States.