Kremlin rebuffs Trump’s calling of Germany as a ‘captive’ of Russia

THE Kremlin yesterday rejected US President Donald Trump’s description of Germany as a “captive” of Russia due to its energy reliance, saying his statement was part of a US campaign to bully Europe into buying American energy supplies.

Trump told Germany at a NATO summit in Brussels on Wednesday that it was wrong to support an US$11-billion Baltic Sea pipeline to import even more Russian gas while being slow to meet NATO targets for defense spending.

Russia is keen to press ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline since it has the potential to double its gas exports under the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing traditional routes through Ukraine with which it has poor relations.

However Washington opposes the project, and a spokesman for the US State Department said on Wednesday that Western firms invested in the pipeline were at risk of sanctions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s statement marked an escalation of a US campaign to talk down Russian gas supplies to Europe in an attempt to push the US energy sector instead.

“Supplies of pipeline gas do not lead to dependence of one country on another but to complete mutual dependence. That is a guarantee of stability and future development,” Peskov said on a conference call.

Peskov said Moscow regarded US objections to the new pipeline as “unfair competition” aimed at trying to force European countries to buy costlier US liquefied natural gas.

Five Western firms have invested in Nord Stream 2 — Wintershall and Uniper of Germany, Austria’s OMV, Anglo-Dutch Shell, and France’s Engie.

Also on Wednesday, leaders at the NATO summit held emergency talks after Trump demanded allies immediately raise defense spending, throwing the meeting into crisis.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called an extraordinary session of NATO’s ruling North Atlantic Council after Trump repeated demands for allies to spend more on their militaries, singling out Germany for special criticism.

Diplomatic sources said that Trump used a meeting between the 29 NATO leaders and the presidents of Ukraine and Georgia to repeat for countries to meet a spending target of 2 percent of GDP immediately, instead of by 2024, and to eventually double spending to 4 percent.

After an opening day of summit talks marked by clashes between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO leaders had hoped to focus on policy on Ukraine and Afghanistan.

“Trump took advantage of his speaking time to return to the issue of burden sharing” during the Ukraine and Georgia meeting, a diplomatic source said, prompting Stoltenberg to call the special talks.