Germany Is Ready to Hit Nord Stream 2 to Counter Russian Aggression
Germany Is Ready to Hit Nord Stream 2 to Counter Russian Aggression
(Bloomberg) -- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made it clear on a visit to Moscow that the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be a target for retaliation if Russia uses energy as a weapon.
U.S. and European concerns about the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are growing as diplomatic efforts to broker a solution to the worst security crisis since the Cold War make little apparent headway. Baerbock -- a long-time critic of the gas link -- underscored the threat, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov standing next to her.
“We have repeatedly underlined at various levels of this government that if energy is used as a weapon that would also have a corresponding impact on this pipeline,” she said during her first trip to Moscow as Germany’s top envoy.
Amid the standoff over Russia’s troop buildup on its borders with Ukraine, the West has sought leverage and the nearly completed gas link to Germany offers a potential opening to put pressure on the Kremlin.
Lavrov said it was “counterproductive” to politicize the pipeline, saying it was a commercial project aimed at securing energy supplies for Germany and the European Union.
But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that his government stands by an accord with the U.S. made by his predecessor Angela Merkel, under which Germany agreed to take action if Russia weaponizes energy, and guarantee Ukraine’s status as a transit nation for gas supplies.
“It also includes making it clear that there will be a high cost and everything is up for discussion if it comes to a military intervention against Ukraine,” Scholz said at a news conference in Berlin when asked about potential consequences for Nord Stream 2. “It’s important that we make it clear that it will have high political and economic costs.”
At the start of her visits to Kyiv and Moscow, Baerbock on Monday signaled that the Berlin government may take action against Nord Stream 2, reiterating that the Gazprom PJSC-owned link to Germany under the Baltic Sea carries “geo-strategic implications.”
Russia and the U.S. and its allies held three days of talks last week on Kremlin demands for guarantees that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization won’t expand further and will roll back its military presence to positions held in 1997 -- before eastern and central European nations joined the alliance.
The U.S. and Europe rejected the demands as unrealistic, instead offering to limit missile deployments and exercises in the region. The allies have threatened major sanctions in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Invite to Russia
Stoltenberg said Tuesday that the alliance remains ready to talk with Russia about ways to de-escalate the crisis.
“Today, I have invited Russia and all the NATO allies to attend a series of meetings in the NATO-Russia Council in the near future to address our concerns, but also to listen to Russia’s concerns and to try to find a way forward to prevent any military attack against Ukraine,” he told reporters in Berlin.
Stoltenberg added that NATO allies are “ready to meet again to put forward concrete proposals and to put written proposals on the table.”
Germany said that it wants constructive relations with Russia, but Moscow needs to take steps to reduce tension.
“That could include, for example, a reduction in the number of troops along the Ukraine border,” Scholz said. “And we are of course ready to enter into serious dialog with Russia about the security situation in Europe.”
Lavrov said Russia wasn’t trying to threaten anyone and it was up to the West to respond to its concerns about the implementation of the Minsk accord.
“We’re now waiting for a response to these proposals, as we’ve been promised, in order to pursue the negotiations,” Lavrov said. “We’re not threatening anyone, but we hear threats made to us.”
Baerbock, the 41-year-old co-leader of Germany’s Green party, stood firm in the press conference, saying Russia’s military buildup on the Ukraine is “difficult not to comprehend as a threat.”
Russia, which has amassed up to 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, is keeping the U.S. and its allies guessing about its intentions though it denies it has any current plans to invade its neighbor further. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and backs separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In a sign of the difficulties on deciding how to respond, Germany’s Handelsblatt reported Monday that the U.S. and European Union are no longer considering the option of unplugging Russia from the Swift international banking payments system if it invades Ukraine.
As part of the diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday and the travel to Berlin on Thursday. The Ukrainian leader will visit Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday and Friday, Duda’s foreign policy aide told PAP newswire.
Baerbock says she’s spent most of her talks in over a month in office not with how to cooperate with Russia, but with EU, G7, NATO partners, to discuss how to react if Russia follows its threats with violence.
“Our government did not seek out this situation, but we can’t and we won’t avoid it,” she said.
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