MOSCOW, December 23. / TASS /. By imposing sanctions on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the United States demonstrated that its diplomacy is aimed at intimidating the opponent, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when speaking at the "government hour" in the Federation Council (upper house) on Monday.
"The United States has once again demonstrated that its diplomacy comes down primarily to intimidation by various methods — sanctions, ultimatums, and threats," Lavrov stated. "When the closest allies are punished for solving their economic problems, tasks related to energy security, I think that no country in the world should ever doubt that if the United States promises them something, they will be abandoned at any time," said he.
On December 20, US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream gas pipelines entered into force. Against this backdrop, Allseas, a Swiss-based pipe laying company for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, announced the suspension of work on December 21.
Balance of interests
Moscow and Washington have recovered constructive cooperation in various areas, namely in the sphere of counterterrorism, the Russian foreign minister recalled.
"We have stated that normal cooperation has been recovered in various areas, although there are few of them," the minister noted. "We have held two rounds of consultations on counterterrorism, which began a long time ago but were suspended by the administration [of former US President] Barack Obama."
"There has been contact between special envoys on Afghanistan in a trilateral format involving China and sometimes Pakistan, which will continue," the Russian top diplomat revealed. "We have established contact on Syria between our military and diplomatic missions."
Contacts with US on Korean peninsula developments
The situation on the Korean peninsula can once again spiral into a crisis in the region, Russia's top diplomat commented.
"We [Russia and the US] have a [communications] channel on the Korean peninsula developments. I cannot say that we are moving equally positively along all these trajectories, but the very existence of the channels helps to better understand each other’s intentions and creates a possibility for the Americans to hear our point of view as well, including that on the problem of the Korean peninsula, which can now get a new crisis dimension," the foreign minister claimed.
At their meeting in the Panmunjom demilitarized zone on June 30, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to restart working-level negotiations on denuclearization, suspended after a failed summit of the two leaders in Hanoi in February 2019.
In line with that agreement, US and North Korean representatives met in Stockholm on October 5 to discuss prospects for normalizing bilateral relations, but did not succeed in establishing a dialogue.
Kim Myong-gil, who led the North Korean delegation, said the talks had been a failure and expressed disappointment over the United States’ unpreparedness for the talks. However, the US Department of States described these consultations as constructive.