German foreign minister Heiko Maas has on Thursday, said the US sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, backed by Russia, would be considered as a wrong way to resolve a dispute over the energy supply.
The United States President Donald Trump has accused German countries of being a “captive” of Russia because of its energy reliance and has urged Germany to cease work on the $11 billion worth Russian-led gas pipeline which was to be built in the Baltic Sea.
According to Reuters news reports, Mass said, “Questions of European energy policy must be decided in Europe, not in the US.” He further added, “To impose unilateral sanctions against Nord Stream 2 is certainly not the way to go.”
Since Russia has taken over Crimea four year ago, Moscow and Berlin have been at severe odds. But however, they both expressed their interest in the Nord Stream 2 project, expected to double its capacity over the existing Nord Stream 1 route.
The spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Berlin Joseph Giordono-Scholz said the other Europeans states have also expressed their refusal to the planned project.
While responding to the comments made by Mass, Joseph said: “We would point out that … the European Parliament condemned Nord Stream 2 and called for its cancellation as recently as December.”
In an interview with Reuters last month, German economy minister Peter Altmaier said Germany would be constructing the infrastructure in order to import LNG and that the authorities were currently in an ongoing process of clarifying location issues with the private investors.