President Joe Biden warned that the massive Nord Stream 2 natural gas line between Russia and Germany would be halted if the former’s president, Vladimir Putin, invades Ukraine.
The pipeline’s fate has been in the balance as U.S. and European allies weigh possible sanctions and deterrents against Russia, but Germany has been reluctant to take a concrete position on the pipeline project.
“There will be no longer be a Nord Stream 2” if “tanks and troops” move across Ukraine’s border, Biden said Monday during a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House after a meeting between the two leaders.
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The president insisted that Washington would “bring an end to it.”
While the pipeline still needs to clear regulatory hurdles, it has already been completed. Germany has also argued that it needs the gas in order to bridge its economy to a cleaner-fuel regime.
Asked to explain how the pipeline would stay offline, Biden gave few details.
“I promise you. We’ll be able to do it,” the president said.
The $11 billion gas pipeline is owned by Russia’s state-backed energy giant Gazprom and runs from western Siberia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. It would provide a large source of revenue for Moscow.
But even as Russia massed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, sparking concerns that it is preparing to invade the country, Germany has been reluctant to commit publicly to threatening to end the gas pipeline project.
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Scholz did not address the pipeline directly but said in response to a question about the project that the United States and Germany would act together to crack down on Russia if it attacks Ukraine.
“We are acting together. We are absolutely united, and we will not be taking different steps — we will do the same steps, and they will be very, very hard to Russia, and they should understand,” Scholz said.
