Trump Says Strives To Turn US Into Russia's Competitor In Energy Sector

US President Donald Trump told the Fox Business news channel in an interview that he was pursuing a policy, which would enable the United States to act as a competitor to Russia in the energy market.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) US President Donald Trump told the Fox business news channel in an interview that he was pursuing a policy, which would enable the United States to act as a competitor to Russia in the energy market.

"Look at my policies on energy ... I'm opening up our country to natural gas and to oil ... And that's competition for Russia," the US president said on Tuesday.

Trump added that nobody had been "tougher" on Russia than him.

The US leader said that he had "brought up the scheme" of Germany paying "billions and billions of Dollars" to Russia for the natural gas.

"They knew about, but nobody talked about it.

I've made it a big issue," he said.

Trump has been repeatedly attacking the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is currently under construction and is set to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to the European Union per year, running through the Baltic Sea to a hub in Germany. He has been urging the US European allies to suspend the construction, and advocating for the import of the US liquefied natural gas.

On September 25, Trump said at the UN General Assembly that the Nord Stream 2 would make Germany "totally dependent" on Russian energy, stressing the US readiness to export oil and gas to Europe.