Maas, Top Polish Diplomat Disagree On Nord Stream 2 During First In-Person Talks In Months

The foreign ministers of Germany and Poland highlighted their diverging attitudes toward the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline during their first in-person meeting after a coronavirus hiatus on Tuesday

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th June, 2020) The foreign ministers of Germany and Poland highlighted their diverging attitudes toward the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline during their first in-person meeting after a coronavirus hiatus on Tuesday.

"Nord Stream 2 is a project that Poland has criticized from the very beginning, as it does not ensure energy security and makes [Europe] dependent on deliveries of one supplier, namely Gazprom," top Polish diplomat Jacek Czaputowicz said at a joint press conference with Germany's Heiko Maas, who is currently on a visit to Warsaw.

According to the Polish minister, the pipeline threatens Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Ukraine, whose transit role will be diminished.

"We must strive to diversify and ensure that the project will not be implemented," Czaputowicz argued.

Maas replied that Poland's stance on the issue is "not something new" for Germany. Berlin has supported the pipeline project and rejected US sanctions against it.

"Our attitude to this project is unchanged," the minister said, noting that Berlin rejects the United States' extraterritorial sanctions meant to block the pipeline's completion.

The US, backed by Poland, Baltic nations and Ukraine, has been actively seeking to disrupt the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, under the pretext of protecting Europe's energy security.

After Washington included sanctions against the pipeline in its 2020 National Defense Authorization Act last year, Allseas, a Swiss company responsible for laying down the pipes, quit the project in December with just 100 miles of the pipeline left to lay.

Russia is now finishing the pipeline on its own. According to Moscow, the US behavior is nothing but an attempt to force Russia out of the European energy market to sell more liquefied natural gas to the continent.