US: EU should drop Nord Stream-2 after Kerch Strait incident

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (PRIME) -- A recent incident in the Kerch Strait should force the E.U. to abandon Russia-led Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project, a senior official at the U.S. Department of State said late Tuesday.

“Kerch incident should be a reminder to all of our European allies on why Nord Stream-2 is such a bad idea… I would say the Kerch incident is a reminder that the less infrastructure you have, the less gas infrastructure you have bypassing Ukraine because of Nord Stream-2, the weaker the deterrent  – deterrence is to Russian acts of military aggression,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said he believes that halting the Nord Stream-2 project would be the best sanction against Russia, online newspaper Yevropeiskaya Pravda (European Truth) reported.

“We talked about the need to stop the Nord Stream-2 and that it would be the best sanction against Russia, as well as about the possibility of banning some Russian ships from using ports of civilized countries. But this is a question of further discussions,” Klimkin said after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

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 will implement the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, and Engie.

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