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Nord Stream gas leak investigation

China calls on US to provide intelligence on Nord Stream incident — Foreign Ministry

China had been playing a constructive role since the start of the conflict, urging the parties to restart negotiations and resolve the disagreements peacefully, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson points out

BEIJING, February 23. /TASS/. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has called on the United States to share information about sabotage on the Nord Stream system, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

"We hope that the US will be able to provide intelligence about the explosions on the Nord Stream [and Nord Stream 2], instead of withholding information," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

In addition, Wang Wenbin emphasized that China had been playing a constructive role since the start of the conflict, urging the parties to restart negotiations and resolve the disagreements peacefully.

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage," which had been inflicted on three lines of the Nord Stream pipelines the previous day. Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions along the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. On November 18, 2022, the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office said that the blasts along the pipelines were an act of sabotage. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.

American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in his article published on February 8 that explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation after nine months of discussions with administration officials in charge of security matters.

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House told TASS, replying to the news agency’s question, that the Hersh story was totally false and complete fiction.

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