BRUSSELS, March 27. /TASS/. EU countries are up in arms that Russia and the United States are discussing the restoration of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines without their involvement, the European publication Politico reported citing EU diplomats.
The fact that the Nord Stream talks are happening without European involvement is "insane," the EU diplomats told the publication.
They further insist that discussions about bringing Nord Stream back online are a "strictly European matter" and expressed concern that the administration of US President Donald Trump was trying to gain new leverage over Brussels.
"They want to back us into a corner" with an "additional layer of dependency," said a third EU diplomat. It’s "economic imperialism," one of the EU diplomats told Politico.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel One that Moscow and Washington were discussing the Nord Stream issue. According to him, it will be interesting to see if the United States uses its influence on Europe and forces it not to refuse Russian gas.
On September 26, 2022, unprecedented destruction was recorded on three lines of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. As a result, only one line of the latter gas pipeline survived. Russia’s Prosecutor General's Office initiated a case on an act of international terrorism. It is currently impossible to determine the time frame for restoring the gas pipelines' functionality.