US, Germany Discuss Nord Stream 2 Concerns
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke June 23 about the two countries' disagreements about Nord Stream 2 and plan to work together to ease the U.S.’s concerns, they said. While the U.S. recently waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG (see 2106070065), the company behind the pipeline, the U.S. continues to “believe” the project is “a threat to Europe's energy security,” Blinken told reporters in a joint press conference with Maas.
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“Germany has a different perspective, and that happens from time to time among friends, and we’ll handle our disagreements while pressing ahead on the many areas where we are working very closely together and are very much in agreement,” Blinken said.
Maas said Blinken was “very clear in impressing upon me that … Washington has expectations of Germany” to make sure President Vladimir Putin “cannot misuse the pipeline to exert pressure on Ukraine.” Maas said Germany will work with the U.S. on this. “We are quite aware of this,” he said, “and we want to make our contribution in that regard.” He added that “we are right now in the midst of talks about how we can fulfill these expectations that Washington has of us.” More than 20 House Republicans have criticized the U.S.'s Nord Stream 2 AG sanctions waiver, saying the move contradicts the U.S.’s strong opposition to the project (see 2106020004).