WASHINGTON, May 1. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to call for the closure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project during an upcoming meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker said on Friday.
Reeker told reporters at a special briefing that the US and German top diplomats are to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial meeting in London.
"I think that we will meet separately with the Germans in the bilateral format. Nord Stream 2 remains an issue. You heard that from the president, from the secretary, from the spokesmen. And we will continue to make it very clear to the Germans our views of that project, that it should stop," he said.
According to the US diplomat, many other issues will be raised during bilateral talks as well.
Washington openly opposes the Nord Stream 2 construction and is engaged in active efforts to halt the project to primarily deal a blow to Moscow’s interests and provide support to Ukraine as a country that is used to transit Russia’s natural gas to Europe. Moreover, many experts point out that the US is seeking to convince Europe to purchase its LNG which is much more expensive than the natural gas that Russia delivers via pipelines. In the past few years, the United States adopted a series of legislative acts that pave the way for unilateral sanctions, including on companies involved in the project.
The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction of two pipeline strings with a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The pipeline’s construction was suspended at the end of 2019 when the Swiss pipe-laying company Allseas stopped work due to Washington’s sanctions. However, work resumed in December 2020 after a year-long pause. The new pipeline will double the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline currently in operation, following largely the same route.