Biden explains sanctions move on NS2
US president Joe Biden said May 25 that moving forward with sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline would undermine diplomatic ties with Europe.
Timm Kehler, the head of German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas, told NGW in January that he did not expect president Joe Biden, fresh into his presidency, would want to alienate Germany, the terminal point for the Nord Stream network, with tighter sanctions.
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By mid-May, the US State Department signaled it would not expand sanctions to include the Nord Stream 2 AG operating company, instead continuing to target only the Russian ships involved in laying the pipeline.
Speaking to reporters May 25, the president echoed the position from Zukunft Gas.
“I have been opposed to Nord Stream 2 from the beginning, but it only has – it’s almost completed by the time I took office,” he said. “And to go ahead and impose sanctions now, I think, would be counterproductive now in terms of our European relations.”
The Kremlin had already welcomed the sanctions relief, prompting a handful of Republican lawmakers to draft legislation that would reverse the president’s decision in the event that it passed.
The company behind the project has been relatively mum on the political developments tied to the pipeline.
Nord Stream 2 is the second leg of a dual natural gas pipeline system that runs through the Baltic Sea to the German coast. Its construction is around 95% complete.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said May 19 the US government remains opposed to the pipeline, arguing it undermines European energy security by keeping links to Russian energy in place.
During a recent conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Blinken made no mention of the gas pipeline, but expressed concern over recent Russian military deployments near Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.
The US president’s comments followed the announcement of a joint summit set for June 16 with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Geneva. The meeting is included in Biden’s first international trip overseas as president to meet with NATO allies and other European counterparts.