Germany wants to buy time in its disagreement with the United States over Nord Stream-2 in order to achieve completion of the project, Reuters writes, citing European diplomats.
According to analysts, the pipeline is 95 percent ready and may be completed by September. Therefore, Berlin believes that after the launch, the situation will look different for Washington, and the rhetoric of American politicians will change to a more pragmatic one.
“Berlin expects that the best strategy is to present the United States with the fact “that the project is already ready”, the article says.
In addition, according to European diplomats, the FRG believes that the American authorities have a desire to negotiate the gas pipeline issue and seek a joint solution.
At the same time, as told Reuters in Washington, the United States continues to interact with the German government to clarify the sanctions risks. The interlocutors of the agency stressed that the American side is not obliged to offer options in the current situation, since it considers Nord Stream-2 exclusively a problem of Germany.
Pipe-laying vessel Fortuna leaves the port of Wismar – Russia news agency, 1920, 03/06/2021
Nord Stream-2 envisages the construction of two strings 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. Also, the pipe will pass through the territorial or exclusive economic zones of Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
The United States actively opposes, promoting its liquefied natural gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, who call the project a political one. Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that it is of a purely economic nature, and Berlin and Vienna agree with this.
In December 2019, Washington imposed sanctions on the gas pipeline, as a result of which the Swiss Allseas stopped laying. The United States later expanded the restrictions and threatens to do so again.
Work continued a year later: in December 2020, the Russian barge Fortuna stretched 2.6 kilometers of pipes in German waters. As a result, according to the project operator Nord Stream-2 AG, about 148 kilometers of the pipeline remained unfinished out of the total length of its two lines of 2,460 kilometers: 120 in Danish waters and 28 in Germany.
The laying has been agreed with the Danish authorities from January 15, construction on the territory of the kingdom is planned to be completed by the end of April. The German permit for the pipelayer is valid until the end of May. Construction has reached its final stage.