Image credit: Thomas Lohnes / Getty Images
April 26, 2021
Why Berlin And Washington Should Compromise On Nord Stream 2
After four years of chaos in US-EU relations, it was as if the clouds immediately parted on 3 November 2020. Transatlanticists in Washington and across Europe breathed a sigh of relief as Americans voted for a president who is both pro-EU and pro-NATO. The work of repairing a damaged transatlantic relationship could finally begin. Unfortunately, that honeymoon period may be coming to an abrupt halt. Progress on several pressing transatlantic issues in the next four years will depend on deep coordination and healthy relations between the United States and Germany. That bilateral relationship is on thin ice. At the top of the list of irritants is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea, which is around 95 per cent complete and is set to provide Russian natural gas to the European market.
Progress on several pressing transatlantic issues in the next four years will depend on deep coordination and healthy relations between the United States and Germany. That bilateral relationship is on thin ice.
To an outside observer, a pipeline project years in the making might not seem like it has the ability to derail the US-European partnership. That assumption is wrong; this single initiative is a proxy for a whole spectrum of US concerns about Europe. This is why successive US administrations have strongly opposed it. American policymakers fret about growing Russian influence across Europe, the potential for Ukraine to lose billions in annual revenue from transit fees if Russia tries to bypass its natural gas infrastructure, and the reality that Washington may have less say on European policy as the continent becomes more independent-minded. They are also aware that, as ECFR’s latest EU Coalition Explorer shows, Germany is the key country among the EU27 when it comes to European cooperation on transatlantic relations and energy policy.
Germans, for their part, see Nord Stream 2 as strengthening European energy security, and believe that US hawkishness on Russia is counterproductive. In the long run, they view clear-eyed and cautious engagement with Moscow as the smarter play.
Read the full article from the European Council on Foreign Relations.
More from CNAS
-
The Outlook for Ukraine in 2023
Podcast
In the latest installment of our “New Year” series, we take stock of where things stand in Ukraine as we head into 2023. Over the past couple of months, the lines of territori...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Michael Kofman & Lawrence D. Freedman
-
Germany Agrees to Send Leopard Tanks to Ukraine
Podcast
Adjunct Senior Fellow Jeffrey Edmonds joins Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd to discuss Germany's decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Listen to the full interview from WBUR....
By Jeffrey Edmonds
-
Jim Townsend on Ukraine Russia Conflict & Military Aid from NATO via Tanks
Podcast
Russia’s spring offensive could come out of Belarus, explains Jim Townsend, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO. Listen to the interview and more from...
By Jim Townsend
-
How Finnish and Swedish NATO Accession Could Shape the Future Russian Threat
Reports
About the Transatlantic Forum on Russia This policy brief is a product of the CNAS Transatlantic Forum on Russia, an initiative designed to spur coordination between the Unite...
By Nicholas Lokker, Jim Townsend, Heli Hautala & Andrea Kendall-Taylor
