Germany’s Baerbock Warns Against Nord Stream Reopening

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(Bloomberg) — Germany’s acting Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday that the disputed Nord Stream gas pipeline shouldn’t be reactivated, amid suggestions that a potential ceasefire in Ukraine could lead to renewed deliveries from Russia.

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“Not reactivating Nord Stream 2 is our best self-protection,” Baerbock told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with her Nordic and Baltic counterparts on the Danish island of Bornholm. “The cohesion of the EU is our life insurance, and this should always be strongly considered.”

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Germany largely weaned itself off Russian energy supplies after the invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. The Nord Stream pipeline linking Germany to Russia was damaged in explosions in 2022, and the newer Nord Stream 2 link was never authorized for use by Berlin. Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom PJSC has a majority stake in Nord Stream and is the sole owner of Nord Stream 2.

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The idea of putting Nord Stream back into operation is causing concern, especially in eastern Europe. The Baltic states and Poland have long opposed the project and warned that Russia will never use energy supplies purely for economic purposes, but also as a means of exerting political pressure.

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Speculation over a return of Russian gas imports has been swirling ever since discussions over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine emerged. The Financial Times first reported in March that Matthias Warnig, a former spy and allegedly close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was “engineering a restart” of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. 

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Separately, German tabloid Bild reported that Richard Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions and a former US ambassador to Berlin, had traveled to Switzerland several times in an unofficial capacity to participate in talks about the pipeline. Both Warnig and Grenell have denied these reports. 

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Baerbock stressed that several EU countries had warned Germany in the past “that a gas pipeline like Nord Stream 2 is not a purely economic project, but also serves geopolitical interests.” Faced with Putin’s use of gas as a “weapon,” it’s an act of “absolute self-protection to further strengthen renewable energies, rather than reactivating gas imports from Russia,” she said.

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Restoring the North Stream pipeline and supplies from Russia would be “unacceptable,” Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said at a news conference on Bornholm after the meeting on Tuesday.