Nord Stream 2 Aims To Increase Russian-EU Positive Economic Interdependence - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a project of exclusively commercial nature, which aims to increase positive economical interdependence of Russia and the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview released on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2018) The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a project of exclusively commercial nature, which aims to increase positive economical interdependence of Russia and the European Union, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview released on Tuesday.

"The Nord Stream 2 has exclusively commercial nature. The project's implementation aims to diversify the gas deliveries routes and to eliminate transit risks ... And, by the way, [the projects seeks] to increase the level of positive economic interdependence of Russia and the European Union, forming the basis of mutually beneficial relations and stability on the European continent," Lavrov told the Slovak Pravda newspaper.

The Russian foreign minister also commented on US President Donald Trump's remark suggesting that the gas pipeline project was intended to divide Europe.

�"Speaking about the US president's statement mentioned by you, its objective is clear for us. It aims at promoting the US economic and energy interests in Europe. In particular, to make the EU countries finance the construction of costly infrastructure and begin the purchases of the US liquefied natural gas, whose price is 30-40 percent higher compared to the Russian pipeline gas," Lavrov explained.

The United States has expressed its opposition to the Nord Stream 2 project on numerous occasions, claiming that it was the means of political control used by Russia to exert pressure on the European Union. Washington has made a number of attempts to impede the implementation of the project and even incorporated a provision for counteracting the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in its Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, signed by US President Donald Trump in last August.

The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction of two gas pipelines that will run from Russia, through the Baltic Sea and and to a hub in Germany, bypassing Ukraine entirely. The project is a joint venture of the Russian Gazprom energy giant with French Engie, Austrian OMV AG, UK-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, and German Uniper and Wintershall.