Moscow : Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Council via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday, July 04, 2023.(Photo:IANS/Kremlin)
Explosions in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 severely damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, disrupting Russian natural gas supply to Europe via Germany….reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Germany does not resume the operation of the surviving pipe of Nord Stream 2, although Moscow is ready to supply gas through it, local media reported.
“The matter is not only about Nord Stream 1, which was blown up. Nord Stream 2 was damaged, but one pipe is safe and sound, and gas can be supplied to Europe through it, but Germany does not open it,” Putin said in an interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson, published on Friday.
“There is another route through Poland, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, it is also possible to carry a large flow,” he said, adding that, however, Poland closed it, TASS reported.
The Nord Stream pipelines, which transported natural gas from Russia to European markets via Germany, were severely damaged in September 2022 after blasts in the Baltic Sea, Xinhua news agency reported.
The German Chancellor said it is now important to “prevent a further escalation, and thus a catastrophe. That is what all our diplomatic efforts are aimed at”….reports Asian Lite News
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced the suspension of the certification process of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline citing Russia’s course of action over Ukraine.
“The situation today has fundamentally changed,” he told the media on Tuesday.
“We will reassess the situation that has evolved over the past few days.”
“I asked the Economy Ministry on Tuesday to withdraw the existing report on the analysis of supply security at the Federal Network Agency,” Scholz said, adding that it was a necessary administrative step to prevent the certification and thus the operation of Nord Stream 2.
Pic credits ANI
The Ministry of Economic Affairs would now make a new assessment of the security of supply taking the last days’ development into account, he said.
Russia’s decision to recognise “the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR)” and “the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)” as independent states was a “serious breach of international law” that violated the Minsk agreements and the Charter of the United Nations, Scholz added.
The German Chancellor said it is now important to “prevent a further escalation, and thus a catastrophe. That is what all our diplomatic efforts are aimed at”.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to transport 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. The 1,234-km pipeline, however, has been lying idle, pending a go-ahead from Germany and the European Union.
Asked how the US will manage to prevent gas from flowing in the pipeline since the project is under Germany’s control, Biden didn’t elaborate, only saying he can “promise” that Washington “will be able to do that”….reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden has reaffirmed that a joint gas pipeline project between Germany and Russia won’t advance if Russia invades Ukraine, stopping short of explaining how it will be achieved if Germany has reservations for that decision as a deterrence against Moscow.
With visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz standing next to him, Biden on Monday told a press conference at the White House that if Russian tanks and troops cross the border and enter Ukraine, “there will be no longer Nord Stream 2,” referring to the now-finished pipeline delivering natural gas from Russia to Germany that bypasses Ukraine.
“We will bring an end to it,” the President said of the pipeline that is not yet operational.
Asked how the US will manage to prevent gas from flowing in the pipeline since the project is under Germany’s control, Biden didn’t elaborate, only saying he can “promise” that Washington “will be able to do that”.
Scholz, for his part, repeatedly avoided directly mentioning Nord Stream 2, although it appeared that the pipeline was one of the subjects that most concerned reporters during the press conference, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We will be united,” the Chancellor said, speaking in English as if he wanted to give Americans reassurance. “We will act together. And we will take all the necessary steps, and all the necessary steps will be done by all of us together.”
Biden and Scholz — whose ongoing visit in the US is his first since assuming the chancellorship in December — were both trying to exhibit the unwavering unity between Washington and Berlin vis-a-vis the handling of the ongoing crisis on Ukraine’s borders.
There has been a great deal of frustration expressed by US media and lawmakers on Capitol Hill about Germany’s decision not to aid Ukraine with lethal weapons, as well as what they perceived as the lack of clarity from Berlin on whether to turn off Nord Stream 2.
“There’s no need for him to win back trust. He has the complete trust of the US,” the US President said in defense of Scholz as the Chancellor was challenged by a reporter to rethink whether Germany’s decision will make it less of a reliable ally of the US.
Stressing that the transatlantic partnership with the US is “one of the permanent pillars of German policy,” the German Chancellor said his country has done its part both in terms of strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s military might and with regard to providing financial assistance to Ukraine.
Further dispelling concerns over Germany’s dependence on Russian gas supply, Scholz added that his government has been taking measures to accelerate the transition into a clean energy-based economy, noting that one quarter of the total energy that Germany now relies on is generated by gas, “and only part of that gas comes from Russia — big part comes from Norway or The Netherlands.”
Blinken has slammed the Nord Stream as a Russian project intended to divide Europe.
Nord Stream 2 is a “bad deal for Germany, for Ukraine, and for our Central and Eastern European allies and partners”, said Blinken…reports Asian Lite News
The US government has threatened new sanctions against companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, urging them to pull out of the German-Russian project.
The US State Department “reiterates its warning that any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline”, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Thursday.
He added that the Department is tracking efforts to complete the pipeline and “evaluating information regarding entities that appear to be involved” in the project.
The Biden administration has made clear the Nord Stream 2 is a bad deal. We continue to monitor activity and warn any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will risk sanctions. We are committed to complying with the Congressional legislation in this regard.
The Secretary of State pointed to sanctions legislation passed by Congress against the project and said President Joe Biden would comply with it.
So far, the US has only imposed sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS, which operates the pipe-laying vessel Fortuna.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Russian President Vladimir Putin
The measures were announced by former President Donald Trump’s administration shortly before the end of its term in January.
US officials argue the pipeline, which is supposed to transport 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia to Germany once a year trhough the Baltic Sea, will make Europe too dependent on Russian energy supplies.
Supporters of the gas pipeline, on the other hand, have long accused the US of undermining the project in order to increase sales of their liquid gas in Europe.
