At their meeting in Washington, Joe Biden and Angela Merkel show the will to maintain good relationships again. “Different assessments” of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline should not change this either.
Against the background of the dispute with Germany over the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, US President Joe Biden has warned Russia against using energy exports as a weapon. That “must not be allowed,” said Biden on Thursday after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in Washington. The Chancellor “and I fully share this conviction”.
In the case of Nord Stream 2, “we have different assessments,” admitted Merkel for her part. But “Ukraine remains a transit country for natural gas”. Germany will “act actively” if Russia does not respect this right.
Joe Biden: Sanctions no longer make sense
Nord Stream 2 is supposed to transport Russian natural gas to Germany. The now almost completed pipeline has been causing tension both within Europe and between Berlin and Washington for years.
Biden is extremely critical of the project. The US feared a greater dependence of Europe on Russian gas and economic damage for the traditional transit countries for Russian gas, above all for Ukraine.
“Practical measures” against Russian extortion
Nevertheless, after taking office in January, Biden positioned himself against imposing sanctions on the companies involved in Nord Stream 2. “When I became president, the pipeline was 95 percent ready. Sanctions made no sense,” is how he explained this step. Instead, he decided to work with Germany.
Together, “practical measures” would now be explored in the event “that Russia is blackmailed”. Whether this leads to concrete steps in the end remains to be seen, said the US President.
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