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Germany’s new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been caught as a diplomatic vice for days when the US put pressure on the Berlin coalition to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The controversial pipeline project, which leads from Ust-Luga in Russia to Lubmin in northeast Germany, should also be the first test of the unity of the new federal government.
Baerbock, the 40-year-old co-head of the Greens, has long rejected the almost complete giant pipeline, but the German coalition program is silent on this, as the social democrats of the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz support the project.
While NATO and Europe are working out a deterrent package to deter Russia from a military incursion into Ukraine, the Biden government, with strong support from Great Britain, Poland and the Baltic states, is calling for the pipeline to be included in a more comprehensive package of sanctions if Russia sends troops to Ukraine.
Germany is expected to agree, but on terms that are likely to be negotiated within the government and show the extent to which Baerbock is forced to submit to Scholz’s foreign policy control.
Baerbock said on Thursday in Paris together with French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian: “The territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine are non-negotiable for us. Russia would pay a high political and economic price for a renewed violation of Ukrainian statehood. ”
In contrast, Baerbock said the pipeline only helped the Putin regime, destabilized Ukraine, contradicted EU climate protection goals and clashed with Europe’s geostrategic interests. Scholz is evasive in this regard and is aware of the champions of the pipeline in the ranks of the SPD.
The energy connection is supported not only by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, today chairman of the Nord Stream board, but also by the center-left party in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the population hopes for economic benefits if gas runs under the Baltic Sea.
Scholz indicated that he would not leave it to his green coalition partners to dictate the language of his government around Nord Stream 2. “The whole country is being watched by the world,†he said. “That is why we will act together as a government – and that starts with the head of government.”
“We have a very clear stance: We want all borders to be respected,†Scholz told the newspaper “Die Welt†on Wednesday. “Everyone understands that if it doesn’t, there will be consequences.” The new Chancellor did not go so far as to threaten to abandon the project.
The Russian gas company Gazprom has the pipeline with a cost of 9.5 billion a transmission system operator from Gazprom.
At full operation, the pipeline would transport 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany every year, which corresponds to around 15% of the EU’s total gas imports.
The U.S. pulled back from sanctions against German companies involved in Nord Stream in July but said it could return if there was evidence of Russian efforts to use the pipeline or gas supplies to make political or broader economic concessions force.
“If Vladimir Putin wants gas to flow through this pipeline, he might not want to run the risk of invading Ukraine,” said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday after a meeting between Putin and US President Joe Biden . There is strong support for the measure in the US Congress.
Baerbock also came under pressure from Poland on this matter before visiting Warsaw on Friday. “I call on Chancellor Scholz not to give in to pressure from Russia and not to allow Nord Stream 2 as an instrument of extortion against Ukraine, as an instrument of extortion against Poland, as an instrument of extortion against the European Union.”
Even if no sanctions will be imposed in the near future, the new federal government must clarify whether it wants to continue the pipeline if the threat to Ukraine is lifted.
It is unclear on what legal basis the pipeline, which the previous government had long described as an economic project without geopolitical consequences, must be approved according to the energy competition law of the European Union.
EU rules require “unbundling” where companies producing, transporting and distributing gas within the EU are separate legal entities and a pipeline like Nord Stream 2 can be used by third parties with a non-discriminatory and transparent pricing structure.
The Nord Stream issue is part of the self-imposed pressure on the new federal government to pay more attention to human rights and values ​​in foreign policy.
With France opposed to the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, Baerbock said Germany would make its decision along with its European friends. France is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics and is reluctant to fall victim to geopolitics the tournament.
Following her visit to Warsaw on Friday, Baerbock will travel to Liverpool for a UK-hosted meeting of G7 foreign ministers.
The liberal FDP, the third coalition partner of the German traffic light government, has also positioned itself against the pipeline.
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