Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s team might have found a diplomatic avenue to block a major energy pipeline from Russia to western Europe, according to a senior State Department official.
U.S. diplomats are working with European allies, particularly in Denmark, to prevent the construction of Nord Stream 2, a major project by a state-run Russian energy company designed to deliver natural gas to Germany. The pipeline project has set off alarm bells throughout Europe and the United States, as officials worry about European dependence on Russian energy. But, Germany favors the deal, complicating Western efforts to block the project.
That’s where Denmark comes in.
“My understanding is that, because Nord Stream 2 would go through Danish waters, this is a potentially significant political and legal stumbling block that could really slow progress on the pipeline,” A. Wess Mitchell, the assistant secretary from the bureau of European and Eurasian affairs, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Tuesday.
Mitchell added “there is a fairly broad political consensus” in Europe the pipeline should not be constructed.
The concern over the project has a variety of aspects. For one thing, it would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop shipping gas through Ukraine, and thereby avoid paying transit fees to a country that Russia has invaded. The loss of that revenue would weaken Ukraine’s economy even as the crisis continues. It would also enhance Russia’s ability to cut off gas to Europe for political reasons.
“This is a project that would concentrate 75 percent of the Russian gas to Europe in one pipeline,” Mitchell said. “So, it’s not in Europe’s interest, it’s not in our interest.”
That’s a live threat, he emphasized, citing a Swedish study that showed Russia cut off energy supplies “for political purposes” a total of 55 times over 14 years. Those included depriving the Ukrainians of gas in winter three different times.
The United States has also sought to interfere with such projects as part of the package of economic sanctions imposed on Russia to punish the invasion of Ukraine and cyberattacks against the Democratic Party during the 2016 elections. Germany has denounced those efforts as an attempt to force European countries to buy more natural gas from the United States.
“Sanctions policies are neither a suitable nor an appropriate instrument for promoting national export interests and the domestic energy sector,” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in July.
Mitchell sees “a political opening” to change the German government’s mind, as Chancellor Angela Merkel is struggling to form a governing coalition. Part of the case relies on urging Germany not to ignore the worries of other European Union members who oppose the pipeline.
“I think it’s clear that the Germans also have a stated commitment to multilateralism and to the European project that is equally important for both of the major parties that are now talking about forming a coalition,” he said. “I think we have to use this political opening, before the gelatin mold has really set with that government, to impress upon them the sense of responsibility that Germany should have for European energy security.”
