Merkel hopes Russia, Ukraine to agree on gas transit beyond 2024

BERLIN/WASHINGTON, Jul 16 (PRIME) -- Germany and the European Commission have made effort so that Russia and Ukraine signed a gas transit agreement until 2024, and assume that the deal will be prolonged, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint news conference with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.

“We have put much effort, not only Germany, but also the European Commission, so that we could design an agreement with Russia and Ukraine that would guarantee prolongation of gas transit until 2024,” she said.

“And my major assumption is that such gas deliveries will also be possible beyond the date, they are permanent… At least, I have not heard anything contradicting the fact, I would put it carefully,” Merkel said.

“Many instruments” will be used by Germany if Russia violates its obligations under the deal, she added.

Merkel also said that the Nord Stream-2 natural gas project is an additional project, it is not intended to substitute gas transit through Ukraine.

“I want to put it clearly: in our point of view Ukraine was and remains a natural gas transit country… For me, the Nord Stream-2 project is an additional project, not a project to replace gas transit via Ukraine,” she said.

The positions of Germany and the U.S. on the Nord Stream-2 facility differ, Merkel added.

Biden said that the U.S. and Germany are united in defending their Eastern European NATO allies from Russia’s “aggression.”

Biden added that the U.S. and German are united in an opinion that Russia should not be allowed to use “energy as a weapon, as an enforcement tool or as a threat against its neighbors.”

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom is implementing the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie. The project is strongly opposed by the U.S. and several European states.

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