U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that he and his NATO counterparts cautioned Hungary on Wednesday against further delaying Sweden�s membership in the military alliance, and he warned that patience in Washington has its limits.

Lawmakers from the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb�n boycotted an emergency session of parliament on Monday where a vote was scheduled to place Sweden�s bid to join NATO on the legislative agenda, adding to 18 months of delays that have angered Hungary�s allies.

The governing Fidesz party, which holds an absolute majority in Hungary’s parliament, has stalled Sweden�s bid since July 2022, alleging that Swedish politicians have told �blatant lies� about the state of Hungarian democracy. The party insists that Sweden�s prime minister must come to Hungary first.

�We heard security adviser after security adviser say that it�s past time for Sweden to get in, and to directly address the representative from Hungary,� Sullivan told reporters after a meeting of the organization�s top security officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Sullivan said that he and his colleagues had impressed upon Hungary that �it�s a matter of credibility and obligation that they take the necessary steps� to complete the parliamentary procedures to ratify Sweden�s accession.

Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, set aside decades of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO�s collective security umbrella after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Finland has since joined the trans-Atlantic alliance. The country, along with the other 30 allies, must all agree that Sweden should stand among NATO�s ranks. Hungary is the only member standing in its way.

Sullivan said that he wouldn’t �stand here today and make particular threats, or speculation about steps that we would take down the road, but of course our patience on this can�t be unlimited either.�

He said the U.S. will �continue to watch it carefully, but hope that there is a constructive resolution to this issue in the very near term.�

Orb�n, who has broken ranks with NATO allies by adopting a Kremlin-friendly stance toward Russia�s war in Ukraine, has said that he invited Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to Budapest to discuss �future cooperation in the field of security and defense as allies and partners.�

Unless another emergency session of Hungary’s parliament is called to debate Sweden�s bid, the assembly is due to sit for its regular session on Feb. 26.

(AP)