VIENNA (AP) — Austria’s leader praised Britain Tuesday as a “pioneer” in outsourcing asylum proceedings to places outside Europe, citing a U.K. bill to send migrants to Rwanda as he hosted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Vienna.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative party has long taken a hard line on migration and faces a strong challenge from the far-right Freedom Party in an election expected this fall.

Nehammer said Austria and the United Kingdom, which left the European Union in 2020, are “strategic partners when it comes to being able to conduct asylum proceedings in safe third countries.”

“The United Kingdom is a pioneer for this path, which will also be important for the European Union,” he said at a joint news conference with Sunak. “With the Rwanda model, it is a pioneer for us being able to put asylum proceedings in safe third countries on the European Union’s agenda too.”