Estonia: Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees: Nord Stream 2 will endanger security in Europe

NordenBladet — The Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees of the parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States underline in their joint statement that the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will undermine the European gas market, endanger security, and threaten the already precarious sovereignty of Ukraine.

In the opinion of Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Marko Mihkelson, the joint decision of the United States and Germany to give the green light to the completion of Nord Stream 2 could strain the security situation of the whole Europe. “The completion of the project will give Russia yet another tool to pressure and blackmail Ukraine as an important energy transit country. The parties involved have to understand that the only one to profit from the gas pipeline is Russia. It is a serious security crisis,” he added.

Mihkelson pointed out that the joint statement emphasised that it was necessary to make a collective commitment to increase support to the security and defence capabilities of Ukraine by delivering a road map for Ukraine’s path towards joining the NATO alliance, and to agree upon a European Union membership perspective for Ukraine. “We need to make a collective commitment to increase support to the security and defence capabilities of Ukraine in order to prevent a deepening of the current security crisis, exacerbated by the threats created by Nord Stream 2,” the Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees emphasise. They also call for commitments from NATO to strengthen deterrence, especially on the Eastern Flank from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

The signatories consider Nord Stream 2 a geopolitical project geared towards expanding Russia’s influence on Europe by dominating the energy market. “The likely repercussion of the completion and operation of Nord Stream 2 is to undermine the development of a single, liberalized, and open European market by consolidating sources of supply in the Nord Stream 2 system and deterring investment in alternatives,” the joint statement says. “We expect a clear commitment from Germany to reduce dependency on gas imported from Russia and move towards green energy.”

It is also insisted that any further agreements on Nord Stream 2 necessitate consultations across the transatlantic family. “Countering malign Russian aggression is in all of NATO’s, all EU members, and our partners in Central and Eastern Europe vital national security interests,” the signatories emphasise.