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US, allies in Europe, irked by new Russia gas pipeline scheme

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) and Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz hold a joint press conference after their meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on January 27, 2018. (AFP photo)

US authorities have voiced deep frustration over a planned Russian pipeline that would bypass Washington’s allies in Central Europe and carry gas to Germany.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday while in Poland that the scheme would further undermine efforts for making Europe independent of the Russian energy.

“Like Poland, the United States opposes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline ... We see it as undermining Europe's overall energy security and stability and providing Russia yet another tool to politicize energy as a political tool,” said Tillerson at a news conference with his Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz.

The US has always been sensitive to Russia’s increasing clout in Europe which it believes is partly due to Moscow’s delivery of energy to the continent. A first pipeline currently carries Russian gas through Poland and Ukraine to Germany and other countries in Western Europe. However, a conflict in Ukraine and Poland’s increasing hostility toward Russia have forced countries like Germany to seek a more reliable transferring route via the Baltic Sea.

For his part, the top Polish diplomat opposed the Russia-Germany gas pipeline, saying Europe had to search for more reliable means of procuring its energy needs. Czaputowicz said that “it is necessary to diversify energy supplies into Europe.”

Poland has vastly expanded its military and energy cooperation with the US over the past years and especially since a crisis erupted in next door Ukraine. Some 5,000 US troops have been deployed to Poland as part of two separate American and NATO missions. Russia has viewed the deployment as a provocation.

Washington also began exporting its natural gas to Poland last year while it is working to convince Warsaw to receive its gas through a pipeline from energy-rich Norway.
