Poland: Nord Stream 2 will help Russia to further arm itself
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he disagreed with the position of the United States and Germany on the issue of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.
The head of the Polish government noted that Poland's allies, including Germany and the United States, "selfishly approached the issue of building this gas pipeline." Morawiecki stressed that earlier Poland insisted that the implementation of this project "helps to arm Russia."
"Russia is a state that is very heavily armed, has many opportunities in this area. So we believed from the beginning that this project is wrong," the Prime Minister said.
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister called Germany and the U.S. agreement on Nord Stream-2 “an expensive mistake”.
Germany and the United States reached a compromise on the Russian gas pipeline.
According to media reports, the Biden administration urged Ukraine to refrain from criticizing the U.S. agreement with Germany on Nord Stream 2.
The completion of the 10-billion-euro project, of which 5 billion was invested by Gazprom, and the remainder by five European energy companies, is expected before the end of the year, said the Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak.
Two pipes with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year, laid on the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the coast of Russia to Germany, were the third attempt of the Kremlin to bypass Ukraine in delivering gas to Europe.
The first, South Stream was blocked by Bulgaria, the second, TurkStream, was partially blocked by Turkey, which agreed to use only one line of Turkish Stream instead of the three that Gazprom had hoped for.
In 2019, the European Commission adopted amendments to the gas directive, which prohibit one company to be both the owner of the gas pipeline and the gas supplier.
This means that Gazprom is required to provide access to Nord Stream-2 to independent gas suppliers, and it can use only half of the capacity, 27.5 billion cubic meters per year.