MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2020) The German government should make every effort to support the completion of the Nord Stream 2 project, despite the tightening sanctions pressure from the United States, Steffen Kotre, the spokesman of the Alternative for Germany party in the Bundestag's committee on economic affairs and energy, told Sputnik on Friday.
On Thursday, US senators introduced a bipartisan bill that would expand sanctions on Nord Stream 2 to include all companies that provide certification, insurance and port facilities for the project. The bill comes as Russia seeks to finish the twin pipeline on its own after the previous US sanctions, included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, forced Swiss pipelaying company Allseas to quit the project in December with just 100 miles of the pipeline left to lay.
"The German government has to take every necessary measure to support the completion and operation of the pipeline. This should be done in close cooperation with Russia. Moreover, we expect our European partners to stop any attempt to undermine the project," Kotre said.
The lawmaker argued that Nord Stream 2 is of "crucial importance" for Europe's energy security. To support it and shield private companies from US sanctions, "Germany should purchase the construction ships," the politician suggested.
The US has been actively seeking to disrupt the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry up to 1.942 trillion cubic feet of gas per year to Germany via the Baltic Sea, under the pretext of protecting Europe's energy security.
Moscow believes that the US behavior is nothing but an attempt to force Russia out of the European energy market to sell more liquefied natural gas to the continent. Russian authorities have repeatedly stressed that Nord Stream 2, which is a joint venture of Gazprom and five European companies, is a mutually beneficial and purely commercial project with competitive prices.
