The United States denies negotiating with Germany over the fate of Nord Stream 2 – Axios

Washington, February 28. / TASS /. The Axios portal reported Saturday that US authorities are not consulting with Germany to reach an informal agreement on completing Nord Stream 2. US diplomats made the statement during a private phone call from US Congress officials.

According to the post, Molly Montgomery, Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, denied that the United States is negotiating a possible side agreement with Germany to push the pipeline forward.

The deputy federal government spokesperson, Ulrike Demir, previously reported that the federal government had discussed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with partners, including the United States of America.

Foreign Ministry officials stressed during the briefing that the word “exchange” should not be interpreted as negotiations and that the Biden government had registered concerns about the pipeline with the Germans as part of normal diplomatic talks, according to the portal.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that Germany was working on a solution that would persuade US President Joe Biden’s administration to drop sanctions on Nord Stream 2. According to the newspaper, German politicians in particular are studying the possibility of implementing a mechanism. This would enable Germany to shut down Nord Stream 2 independently if Russia, for example, puts pressure on Ukraine and arbitrarily restricts supply through the gas transportation system.

The Nord Stream 2 project is considering the construction of two pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year from the Russian coast across the Baltic Sea to Germany. Construction halted in December 2019 after Allseas, a Swiss company building pipelines for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, halted pipeline work due to potential U.S. sanctions and recalled its ships. Nord Stream 2 AG resumed pipeline work in December 2020. So far, about 95% of Nord Stream 2 has been completed.