Germany Declines To Comment On US Plan To Name Special Envoy For Ending Nord Stream 2

The German cabinet declined on Thursday to comment on a media report alleging that US President Joe Biden was mulling appointing his ally as special envoy for shutting down the Nord Stream 2 gas link between Russia and Germany

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2021) The German cabinet declined on Thursday to comment on a media report alleging that US President Joe Biden was mulling appointing his ally as special envoy for shutting down the Nord Stream 2 gas link between Russia and Germany.

"We do not comment on media reports," the government's press office told Sputnik.

On Wednesday, Politico cited former and current US officials as saying that Amos Hochstein had been informally offered the job in March and was being vetted. He has reportedly not accepted the position yet.

Hochstein served as special envoy for international energy affairs under Barack Obama and acted as an adviser to then Vice President Biden, the outlet said. He was on the supervisory board of the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz until stepping down last year.

Berlin has so far defied Washington's pressure to abandon the project, which will see Russia pump 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany across the Baltic Sea every year. The German government has rejected US sanctions on companies involved in its construction as illegal and extraterritorial.