display
London (dpa) - In the dispute between the USA and Germany over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, there is still no solution.
At a meeting between Foreign Ministers Antony Blinken and Heiko Maas (SPD) on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in London, there was no rapprochement on Tuesday.
"We also talked about Nord Stream 2 and exchanged the positions we were mutually familiar with," said Maas after the 40-minute conversation.
"There are no news."
The almost completed pipeline between Russia and Germany has been one of the main points of contention in German-American relations for years. The change of government in Washington at the beginning of the year did nothing to change that. The USA fear that Europe is too dependent on Russian gas and wants to stop the project with sanctions. Proponents of the pipeline counter the Americans that they are only looking for better sales opportunities for their liquefied gas in Europe.
There is disagreement in the German government coalition about how to proceed in the dispute.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) had recently signaled concession after a meeting with her US counterpart Lloyd Austin in Berlin.
She was open to a temporary construction freeze and suggested making operations dependent on the behavior of Russia upon completion.
display
Maas emphasized that the dispute with the US over the pipeline only constituted a “small part” of bilateral relations.
"Apart from this problem, I (...) do not see any at the moment that I would even begin to describe as serious."
Germany and the USA are in the process of repairing the relationship that was badly damaged during the tenure of US President Donald Trump.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210504-99-466251 / 2