Biden and Merkel represent a united front – but they still don’t get along with Nord Stream 2

[ad_1]

On the pipeline, Biden said “good friends can disagree” and noted that it nearly ended when he took office while defending his decision to waive sanctions against the company behind the pipeline.

“It made sense to work with the chancellor to see how she would proceed based on whether Russia was essentially trying to blackmail Ukraine in some way,” Biden said, noting that he asked their teams to consider practical measures they could take together.

Biden and Merkel did not expect to walk away from Thursday’s meeting with an agreement on Nord Stream 2, although the White House has been clear about its desire to take concrete steps to ensure Russia cannot take advantage of the pipeline against the interests of other countries.

In her remarks, Merkel said the two leaders “reached different assessments of what this project entails,” but said they agreed that Ukraine remains a natural gas transit country and has a right to territorial sovereignty.

The two leaders said Germany and the United States are launching a partnership on climate and energy, charting climate push as common ground between the two countries.

The partnership focuses on three areas: climate action, energy technologies, and energy transitions in emerging economies.

The third theme has the stated goal of increasing sustainable energy in these economies and “preventing the use of energy as a coercive tool.” Biden said the partnership will support energy security, the development of sustainable energy technologies and emerging economies such as Ukraine.

In contrast to the relationship between Merkel and former President Donald Trump, the German chancellor described the US-Germany climate partnership as a “very important message”, saying countries wanted to build on “future-oriented” technologies such as renewables.

Before Biden took office, Trump dismissed Merkel when he said Germany was controlled by Russia, then hit the Nord Stream 2 project with sanctions.

Merkel’s visit to the White House was her first since 2019. She described her conversation with Biden as enjoyable, noting that “we all share the same values” — also an important change of tone from the Trump era.

Biden is the fourth and last president Merkel has visited during her tenure as chancellor. She will step down after the German elections in September.

[ad_2]