The main Democrat on the SFRC (Senate Foreign Relations Committee) and its correspondent members from 8 European nations criticized the deal by Germany and the United States that will permit the completion of Nord Stream 2 (the disputed natural gas pipeline between Moscow and Beijing).
A joint declaration from Robert Menendez (the head of the SFRC) and the chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, Estonia, the U.K., and Lithuania gives a comprehensive rebuke of the agreement declared by the administration of Joe Biden in July, in which Germany decided to take a bunch of guidelines intended to mitigate the dangers to European energy security, to Ukraine, NATO countries, European Union and nearby Russian borders. Previously, Russia has halted energy supplies to several other nations, including Ukraine.
Another tool to blackmail and pressure Ukraine
The joint announcement described that the termination of Nord Stream 2 will reinforce the impact of Russian gas in the European energy mix, risk the national security of European Union ally states and the U.S., and risk the already precarious security sovereignty and security of Ukraine, saying that it will offer Russia yet another equipment to blackmail and pressure Ukraine.
Source: Web
The statement further explained that they require to create a collective pledge to boost support to the defense and security capabilities of Ukraine to avoid a deepening of the current security disaster, worsened by the threats made by Nord Stream 2.
The heads urged that any additional deal on Nord Stream 2 require consultations across the transatlantic family. It continued that such diplomacy should occur with the central rules in mind, countering harmful Russian hostility is in all of EU coalition, all of NATOs, and their ally in Central Eastern Europe vital national security interests.
The statement demanded pledges from NATO to reinforce deterrence, particularly on the Eastern Flank from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, and a promise to offering a road map for Ukraine’s path to joining the NATO coalition, in case if the country makes the crucial reforms and meets standards of NATO association.
It added, to join the transformation struggles of the Government of Ukraine as well as democracy and human rights in the country, they call for a European Union coalition perspective to be agreed upon for the country.
The current administration of Joe Biden has sustained disapproval of the pipeline but has described that the project was too far along to halt its completion.
