If Germany decides to respond to US sanctions against Nord Stream-2, then this decision will have far-reaching consequences.
This was told by publicist Ivan Danilov in the material for the publication “Sputnik”.
As News Front previously reported, back in December last year, a package of sanctions was dragged along with the military budget in the US Congress. It touched on companies directly involved in the construction of Nord Stream-2. When the punitive measures took effect, the Swiss company Allseas, which provided pipe layers and supply vessels, left the project. Construction was suspended at the final stage.
Now the US Congress is considering a new bill that expands punitive measures. The authors of the document were Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Ron Johnson and John Barrazo, as well as the representative of the Democratic Party, Gene Shahin. According to the bill, Washington can now blacklist companies and structures providing insurance assistance in the construction of the gas pipeline or legal support for the project.
Against this background, Bloomberg reported that Berlin is preparing a response to US actions. Referring to German officials, they talked about countermeasures, moreover, at the level of the European Union.
Danilov calls the pan-European factor “complex, but exciting”. Moreover, if the idea is realized, then it will have “far-reaching consequences”. The author recalled that now it is Germany that heads the European Council. This gives it a number of advantages in promoting its own political agenda. The German government will have to take this opportunity, because German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in a situation where the manifestation of weakness in foreign policy will provoke problems in the domestic one.
The expert drew attention to the fact that sanctions against the pipeline are not the only act of pressure from Washington. For example, Donald Trump demanded that Berlin pay a trillion dollars of “debt” for the American military presence in Germany, the United States imposes customs duties on European goods, and also opposes the EU’s intentions to tax the American Internet giants Google and Amazon. That is, today there are all conditions for a “large-scale and principled” confrontation between the United States and the European Union, Danilov notes. In his opinion, “it can jerk at any moment”.
At the same time, he admitted that Germany had not learned how to respond to the States with the same cruelty that, in particular, French President Emmanuel Macron has already shown. But the German government is able to find justifications for strengthening its independence from the overseas “partner”. As an example, he cited the environmental factor used by Berlin to uphold Nord Stream-2. Moreover, Merkel now has a political argument.
Here, the author recalled a recent interview with the German chancellor, in which she said that the United States no longer wants to be a leader, which means Europe needs to learn how to live in such conditions.
Danilov calls this approach “ironic”, because Washington’s sabotage of ultimatums is not explained by the desire for independence, but by the US decision to abandon the role of “good hegemony”. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, it is not pretexts that are important, but “real actions and real cubic meters of gas” that will come from Russia to Europe, the publicist stated.