The U.S. is pressuring Europe to sell its own liquefied natural gas, the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, following the U.S. President Donald Trump's claims of Germany being a captive of Russia in natural gas.
At a NATO summit in Brussels on Wednesday, Trump said that Germany is "totally controlled by Russia, because they are getting 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline." However, Peskov disagreed with the criticism over Germany's increasing dependence on Russia with the Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline, the planned project from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea, which is set to have an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.
''Both Nord Stream pipelines are entirely commercial projects. The attacks on these projects seems like a manifesto of unfair competition,'' Peskov said, relaying that Russia has been a long-serving contributor to Europe's energy security.
''We cannot agree with this because pipelines and natural gas transmission do not make a country dependent on another. Both countries become jointly dependent on each other,'' Peskov argued.
Trump further berated Germany at the NATO summit over its dealing with Russia ahead of the meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16. ''Germany's oil and natural gas deals with Russia are very inappropriate. Germany is paying a high price to Russia. That is why Germany is the captive of Russia,'' Trump said.
Germany is Russia's biggest customer in the natural gas sector with imports in 2016 of about 50 million cubic meters.
(Anadolu Agency)
