US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Tuesday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany runs counter to the European Union’s own interests and could undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty. Therefore, the United States warns Germany not to use the transit route.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be another transport route between Germany and Russia with a capacity of 110 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The project was first commissioned in 2011 by Gazprom and the partially German-owned Nord Stream, but construction did not begin until May 2018. From the 0th minute onwards, the United States has aggressively attacked infrastructure development, as it would increase the EU’s energy exposure to the Russians. It is also important to note that the United States will promote Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as one of its main exports, so it has a commercial interest in this matter, although it certainly will not be able to satisfy such a need.
On the other hand, Germany is pushing to complete the pipeline, despite decades of US criticism. At the first NATO meeting of the Biden administration, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken again raised the issue of a 95 percent transit route. He also wrote that he had consulted with his German counterpart, Merkel’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, to discuss the issue Reuters.
Blinken said when he met with Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg: “President (Joe) Biden was very clear that this line is a bad idea, bad for Europe, bad for the United States, and inconsistent with the European Union’s security objectives.”
Blinkin said, “It is against the interests of Ukraine, Poland and many close partners and allies,” noting also that a US law obliges Washington to impose sanctions on companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project, referring to the actual warning about the pipeline construction. ..
According to the foreign minister, Ukraine’s sovereignty could be jeopardized by the project because the country is currently the most important transit route between the European Union and Russia, and Kiev is generating significant revenue from transport brokerage fees.
