EU should refuse from Nord Stream II due to Kerch Strait incident, - U.S

The EU should say 'no' to the Nord Stream II project, with the gas pipeline running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, because of the recent act of the Russian aggression in the Kerch Strait. The unnamed high-rank official of the U.S. Department of State sais this at the briefing in Washington timed to the session of Foreign Ministers of NATO member countries.

'Kerch incident should be a reminder to all of our European allies on why Nord Stream 2 is such a bad idea. And to put an even sharper point on it, I mean, by way of background, I would put it this way: I would say the Kerch incident is a reminder that the less infrastructure you have, the less gas infrastructure you have bypassing Ukraine because of Nord Stream II, the weaker the deterrent – deterrence is to Russian acts of military aggression'.

'So there are practical energy-related reasons we don’t want Nord Stream 2 to go forward. There are also security and Ukraine-related reasons that we don’t want Nord Stream II to go forward, and this is a startling reminder', the official said replying to a reporter's question. 'We raise Nord Stream II with the Germans on every occasion, and I will say I think that Kerch – I mean, when you have a naked act of aggression like that, I think it resonates in German public opinion. And we’ve seen some indications in our recent conversations with German officials that they’ve absorbed that message more plainly after Kerch. It’s harder for them to just say this is a commercial project'.

Earlier, president of Slovakia Andrej Kiska claimed that the Nord Stream-2 was exclusively a political project. He said this at the joint meeting with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

‘Slovakia has always stressed that this is not an economic project but political. This is very important to understand if someone constantly says that this is only a business project. No, no way! This is only a political project,’ Kiska claimed.