Status: 07/22/2021 1:35 a.m.
Following the settlement of the dispute over the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline, German politicians are relieved. Praise comes from Moscow. Ukraine and Poland warn of “additional threats” from the deal.
After the agreement between Germany and the USA on the completion of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter about the breakthrough “relieved that we have found a constructive solution with the USA in the matter of Nord Stream 2”. The Federal Foreign Office wrote: “As transatlantic partners we stand firmly on the side of Ukraine.”
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) also welcomes the agreement. “In recent years we have always worked to ensure that Ukraine’s legitimate security interests are respected,” said the minister. To this end, he advocates “that the gas transit for Ukraine is extended beyond 2024”. He is “glad that transatlantic cooperation is intact again”.
Relief in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig also welcomed the agreement. The Baltic Sea pipeline must be completed, so it is good that there is now an agreement. “The state government has supported Nord Stream 2 from the start and always showed attitude, no matter how difficult it was,” she said NDR. “The pipeline is important for the energy supply throughout Germany and also important for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and our jobs.” Natural gas is an important interim solution until the supply from renewable energies is 100 percent guaranteed.
The German economy in Russia praised the agreement between the US and Germany. “It is a good sign that Washington and Berlin have settled their dispute (…) and that the gas connection, which is extremely important for Europe, can be completed,” said the President of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK), Rainer Seele. “Especially in difficult times it is important that there are such lighthouse projects between Russia and Europe.”
Repeated criticism of Pipeline
With the agreement, the resumption of the sanctions imposed by the US Congress against Nord Stream 2 AG and its managing director will be averted for the time being. US President Joe Biden had lifted the measures in May to August to give both sides time for negotiations.
US State Secretary Victoria Nuland stressed that the US government continues to believe that Nord Stream 2 is “a bad deal” that will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. “This is a bad situation and a bad pipeline, but we have to help protect Ukraine and I feel that with this agreement we have taken some important steps in that direction.” The German government rejects the warning that it is too dependent on Russian gas. The US also wants to sell its own gas in Europe.
Agreement in dispute over Nord Stream 2
Stephan Stuchlik, ARD Berlin, daily topics 10:15 p.m., July 21, 2021
The senior Republican on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, criticized that he had no doubt that Russia “will use the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a weapon of coercion against Ukraine and transatlantic energy security once it is operational is “.
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said she was “not yet convinced that this agreement … can minimize the significant economic and safety implications of completing this pipeline.”
Criticism from Ukraine and Poland
Criticism came from Ukraine and Poland. In a joint statement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitri Kuleba and his Polish colleague Zbigniew Rau condemned the agreement: Such a decision “created additional political, military and energy threats to Ukraine and Central Europe as a whole”.
The paper goes on to say: “We call on the USA and Germany to find an appropriate response to the looming security crisis in our region.” The agreed proposals to compensate for the “security deficit” are only superficial and insufficient.
From the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj it was said that the decision on Nord Stream 2 could not be made “behind the back of all those who really threaten the project”. That could only be clarified at a personal meeting between Zelensky and Biden. The White House announced that Biden and Zelenskyi were scheduled to meet at the end of August.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller told journalists in Warsaw that Chancellor Merkel and Russian President Putin had “a potential destabilization of Central and Eastern Europe on their conscience”. “Unfortunately, we are surprised by the US decision to give up its resistance to the project,” said Müller. “It is an unfortunate decision by the USA for this region to have approved the construction of the pipeline.”
Claudia Kemfert, German Institute for Economic Research, on the agreement at Nord Stream 2
July 21, 2021 10:09 pm
Cautious praise from Moscow
According to government information, Chancellor Angela Merkel called Russian President Vladimir Putin in the afternoon. As the deputy spokeswoman for the federal government, Ulrike Demmer, announced, the phone call was about the implementation of the Minsk agreements to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. “Energy issues such as gas transit through Ukraine and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were also discussed.”
Jo Angerer, ARD Moscow, on the Kremlin’s reaction to the agreement on Nord Stream 2
Topics of the day 10:15 p.m., July 21, 2021
In a message after the phone call, the Kremlin praised “the consistent commitment of the German side” in the implementation of the “exclusively economic project”. The aim is to strengthen the energy security of Germany and the EU. A possible extension of the gas transit contract through Ukraine, which expires in 2024, has also been discussed.
With information from Jan Pallokat, ARD Studio Warsaw