U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to discuss bilateral relations and the Nord Stream 2 project with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of an Arctic Council ministerial meeting, a senior U.S. Department of State official told reporters accompanying Blinken on a trip to Denmark. The conversation’s transcript was released by the U.S. Department of State.
When asked if he planned to raise the Nord Stream 2 issue, Blinken said: "It could come up in the bilat, I suppose. And I think the same holds for Lavrov." "We’ve been very clear, as has the Congress, in our views of Nord Stream 2, and that it is a Russian strategic project that undermines European security, European energy security. So we’ll see if those things come up," the U.S. top diplomat noted.
Lavrov and Blinken earlier held a telephone conversation. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the parties "agreed to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the session in order to address key bilateral and global issues.".
