US President Donald Trump said he considers the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline a problem, but he has not decided on sanctions yet.
The US is opposed to a project that they claim could weaken Europe’s energy security and threaten sanctions for its participants.
Journalists asked Trump at a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a NATO summit in London whether he was going to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2, including against Germany.
“We actually have not yet determined this. I really think that this is a problem that Germany will have to solve herself. Maybe for Germany this will not be a problem. I actually hope that this will not be a problem, but we will talk about this”, – Trump said.
The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of two pipelines of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It is planned to be completed in 2019. The pipeline will pass through territorial waters or the exclusive economic zones of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
Ukraine, which fears losing revenue from Russian gas transit, and a number of European countries, including Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the United States promoting its liquefied natural gas in the EU, are actively opposing Nord Stream 2. They call the project political and threatening energy security in Europe. The Russian side has repeatedly stated that the Nord Stream 2 project is absolutely commercial and competitive, and has indicated that it does not imply a cessation of transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to the EU.