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Mandatory credit: SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
Germany and the US struck a deal to allow the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, on Wednesday.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told Congress “the Nord Stream pipeline is a bad deal.”
“This is a bad situation and a bad pipeline, but we need to help protect Ukraine. And I feel that we have made some significant steps in that direction with this agreement,” she added.
Nuland said the details of the deal will be announced later.
Nord Stream is a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
SOT, John Barrasso, Republican senator: “There is strong bipartisan opposition to the President’s deliberate failure to abide by US law and sanction all the entities involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Now we see news reports that the United States and Germany came to a deal on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. It is on the front page of the day’s Wall Street Journal.” *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, John Barrasso, Republican senator: “It’s clear that Congress and the American people can’t count on the administration to do the right thing with regard to this. So why is it that the administration, why do you believe it’s acceptable to deal this way with Ukrainians and trying to silence them over this terrible deal with the Germans?”
SOT, Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs: “Let me start by by saying we agree with you, the Nord Stream pipeline is a bad deal, as we have said. It increases dependence on Russia and increases dependence on hydrocarbons. I worked, as you know, because you and I worked on it together in my last government gig very hard, particularly with the EU, to make those points to, to slow it and all of and all of those things. With regard to the piece of sanctions, we did, as you know, impose in May a significant number of new sanctions, 19 new entities. We also imposed sanctions on on the company and its, its officers. However, we waived them in the interest of seeing whether we could get Germany to work with us and work with the Ukrainians and Poland to deal with the consequences and the vulnerabilities that this pipeline creates for Ukraine.”
SOT, Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs: “We have not, I want to repeat that here, we have taken zero action to silence Ukraine. Ukraine is a sovereign nation and will speak out itself with regard to this. Later this afternoon, we will make public the agreement that we have with the, with the German government. I can give you a couple of the highlights here, which you’ll – in a minute. But what I’d like to say is throughout this process, we have engaged in intensive consultations with the Ukrainians, including when Secretary Blinken was there, when the president talked to President Zelensky, my own conversations on almost twice monthly basis with senior Ukrainian leaders on their requirements and on their vulnerabilities.”
SOT, Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs: “Among other things, Germany has committed in this agreement with us that should Russia attempt to use energy as a weapon or commit further aggressive acts against Ukraine, Germany will take actions at the national level and press for effective measures at the European level, including sanctions to limit Russian export capabilities to Europe in the energy sector. That’s one aspect of this agreement. The other aspect of this agreement is support for an extension of the transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine. As you know, it comes to an end in 2024. We will seek and press for and use full leverage to try to seek an additional 10 years for Ukraine.”
SOT, Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs: “But more broadly, we need to work together to reduce Ukrainian dependence, both its economic dependence on transit, but its own dependence on Russian gas. So I think you’ll see when this is released, a considerable effort by both the US and Germany to help diversify energy supply and an energy source for Ukraine with concrete dollar figures, Euro figures attached to it. So, look, this is a bad situation and a bad pipeline, but we need to help protect Ukraine. And I feel that we have made some significant steps in that direction with this agreement.”
#NordStream #USA #Nuland #Russia #Ukraine #Germany
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