Status: 07/21/2021 6:56 a.m.
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Less than a week after Merkel’s visit to Washington, a solution to the dispute over the German-Russian Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2 seems to be in sight. Ukraine is apparently to receive concrete aid.
In the dispute over the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline, the US is about to reach an agreement with Germany. “We don’t have any final details to announce, but I think I’ll be able to say more soon,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “The Germans have made useful suggestions,” he said, referring to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to US President Joe Biden in the White House last week. They had come closer to the common goal of “preventing Russia from using energy flows as a weapon,” said Price.
Merkel had admitted differences with Biden during her visit to Washington. However, both agreed that Ukraine must remain a transit country for Russian natural gas – even after Nord Stream 2 went into operation.
The US State Department announced earlier this week that a diplomat would be traveling to Poland and Ukraine this week to discuss Nord Stream 2. The Polish and Ukrainian governments are vehemently opposed to the pipeline bypassing them, as are many members of the US Congress from both Democrats and Republicans.
Replacement of transit revenue for Ukraine
It is expected that the German-American agreement on Nord Stream 2 will stipulate that Ukraine will receive a loan of 50 million dollars (42.4 million euros) for “green technology”, a guarantee for the replacement of transit income for Russian Natural gas by 2024 and a pledge from Berlin and Washington that sanctions against Russia will be considered again if Moscow should use gas as a political weapon, according to Congress circles.
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 USA fears that Europe will become more dependent on Russian gas and that it will suffer economic damage to the traditional transit countries for Russian gas, especially Ukraine. 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,” he justified the move last week. Instead, he decided to work with Germany.
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