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Hopes have grown that Germany and the United States will finally be close to resolving their differences. Nord Stream 2, the pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe. This week, Angela Merkel did her best to cushion them.
He said he would discuss the issue with Joe Biden on his visit to the United States on Thursday (probably his last as German chancellor, after 16 years at the helm), but did not know if they would reach an agreement. “I think not rather,” he told reporters.
US-Germany relations have enjoyed a fast thaw after the deep freezing of Donald Trump’s presidency. Since entering the White House, Biden has stopped Trump’s planned withdrawal of 12,000 U.S. troops from German soil. waived sanctions against NS2 and re-marked the trade disputes that caused a huge irritation between Washington and Berlin.
“I think it’s fair to say that the United States has no better partner, no better friend in the world than Germany,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month in Berlin.
But alongside difficult issues such as Chinese and German defense spending, NS2 remains a bone of contention between the US and Germany.
The anger it provokes was seen on Monday, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters, after talks with Merkel, that “it may threaten Ukraine’s security.” Biden, meanwhile, has called it “bad business for Europe.”
The Germany-backed pipeline, which is almost complete, would greatly expand the volume of gas that Russia can pump directly into Europe, bypassing Ukraine. Critics say it would increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy and leave Ukraine more vulnerable to Kremlin pressure than it is now.
While hopes are not high that U.S. President Merkel and Merkel will be able to resolve the NS2 dispute, officials and diplomats say the two sides could work to achieve a “package” that addresses Ukraine’s concerns.
“It wouldn’t just be Nord Stream 2; the whole idea is to make Ukraine less susceptible to Russian blackmail and less dependent on Russian gas, “said Nils Schmid, a spokesman for the Social Democrats’ foreign affairs, a minor partner in Merkel’s coalition government.
One idea is a mechanism that would allow Germany to shut down NS2 if Russia pressures Ukraine, for example, by arbitrarily cutting off gas supplies currently circulating through Ukraine’s transit system.
“Any start-up of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline should be linked to security of supply for Eastern Europeans,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior foreign policy spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, wrote recently. He said the Russians should provide “verifiable guarantees” that they will supply Ukraine with “fixed minimum amounts of gas in the future.”
Merkel hinted Monday that Germany would push to ensure that Russian gas continues to circulate in Ukraine even after the current transit contract expires in 2024. “We are not powerless there,” he said. “We have promised it in Ukraine and we will keep it.”
Zelensky did not seem impressed. “It simply came to our notice then. . . they are too small, ”he said.
A second idea to address the problem would involve close cooperation between Germany and Ukraine on renewable energy.
Berlin wants to help Ukraine become a potential supplier of “green hydrogen” to German industry, a topic discussed last March between German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Berlin.
“We have 2 billion euros for international hydrogen projects: we can help effectively,” said Altmaier he tweeted in May.
While expectations of a deal this week in Washington are low, it is clear that Biden would like to resolve the NS2 conflict ahead of Zelensky’s planned visit to the White House later this summer.
“He [Biden] it wants to take the issue off the agenda because it’s a hot political potato nationwide, ”a Zelensky adviser said, noting strong criticism from both sides in the U.S. Congress when Biden waived NS2 sanctions.
NS2 is not the only irritant in the US-Germany relationship. The United States remains unhappy with the fact that Germany has not spent 2% of its gross domestic product on defense, a goal it adopted in 2014 and has so far failed to achieve.
There are also differences in China. Biden wants European support for a tougher approach to Beijing, but the German political establishment fears being dragged towards a new cold war. Merkel, who is resigning as chancellor after the September federal election, has consistently stressed the need to work with China.
Stephan Bierling, a professor of international politics and transatlantic relations at the University of Regensburg, said Biden’s friendly gestures towards Berlin were not just motivated by goodwill. “All of this is an upfront payment to win German support for its tougher policy on China,” he said.
Biden may end up disappointed, for now. “The reality is that the Germans are not ready to welcome him,” Bierling said.
However, Schmid added, while “Merkel has made it clear that she is not changing her Chinese policy… She is clear. is it will change – after he leaves power ”.
Additional reports by Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv and Aime Williams in Washington
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