German lawmaker Steffen Kotre has urged Berlin to initiate countermeasures against the U.S. over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
Kotre, a member of the German parliament's energy committee from the party Alternative for Germany (AfD), said that the situation around Nord Stream 2 remains unclear in light of Washington's latest decision to scrap a number of sanctions against the project's operator.
"It's common knowledge that the construction of the pipeline is coming to a close. I cannot judge how seriously the US administration has decided to review its position on Nord Stream 2, but I hope this important project will be completed successfully", Kotre stressed.
At the same time, he added that "given the German government opposing [the] U.S.' aggressive actions against Nord Stream 2 only rhetorically, there is a growing concern the project will not be completed, so it would be politically correct to initiate countersanctions" on Washington by raising customs duties on liquefied natural gas supplies from America, among other things, Sputnik reported.
Kotre argued that "if the threat of sanctions from the U.S. administration was really dictated by concern for European energy security, they would have imposed sanctions against the German government long ago".
According to the lawmaker, a decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to simultaneously abandon the development of coal and nuclear energy in the country poses a "serious threat to the energy security" of Germany and Europe. In light of this, the Nord Stream 2 project will "help to mitigate the consequences of this move", Kotre underscored.
The remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Washington had decided it was "in the national interest" of the U.S. to waive the application of sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, its CEO Matthias Warnig, and Nord Stream 2 AG's corporate officers.
