State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry Miguel Berger confirmed that Germany is interested in the implementation of the Nord Stream-2 project, said the head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev following a meeting with the German politician.
Despite the noticeable deterioration in Russian-German relations that has been observed recently, “there is no disagreement on the Nord Stream-2 project”, the senator said on Friday on the Vmeste-RF TV channel.
“Mr. Berger fully confirmed that Germany is interested in its implementation. Germany understands all the risks and problems associated with maintaining the main option for the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine”, – Kosachev said.
He noted that the Ukrainian gas transportation system is in a deplorable state, it has not been repaired for 30 years. This leads to additional costs, and Nord Stream-2 saves businesses from unnecessary costs, the parliamentarian concluded.
Nord Stream-2 envisages the construction of two lines 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. The project is actively opposed by the United States, which is promoting its liquefied natural gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine and a number of European countries. The states imposed sanctions against the gas pipeline in December 2019, as a result of which the Swiss Allseas was forced to stop laying.
It continued a year later – in December 2020, the Fortuna pipelayer laid 2.6 kilometers of pipes in German waters. As a result, according to Nord Stream-2 AG (operator of the project), at the end of January, approximately 148 kilometers of the pipeline remained unfinished out of the total length of its two lines of 2,460 kilometers – 120 kilometers remained to be laid in Danish waters, and about 28 kilometers in German waters.