Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian foreign affairs committee chairs call for opposing Nord Stream 2

Tallinn, March 3 - Neftegaz.RU. The chairmen of the foreign affairs committees of the 3 Baltic parliaments emphasize in their letter to their US colleagues the need to stand united to oppose the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and to support European energy security.

In their letter to Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Gregory Meeks and Ranking Member Michael McCaul, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian chairmen of the foreign affairs committee wrote that the 3 Baltic states and most other European countries, as well as the European Parliament, have repeatedly called on the EU to stop the Nord Stream 2 project.

The letter says:

• Russia’s malign activities surpass all physical borders, and they do not limit themselves to onlytheir neighbouring countries;
• Russia is very close to achieving all of these detrimental goals with its «Trojan horse» – the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipeline;
• Nord Stream 2 is a malign influence project designed to further Russia’s geopolitical aims;
• History shows that Russia uses its energy exports as a coercive mechanism against its neighbouring countries;
• NS2 will increase the (energy) dependence of Europe, which, in turn, will weaken European resilience against malign activities;
• If NS2 is completed as planned, Russia will yet again have proven that Western principles and values can be corrupted and sold for money

As the Russian gas pipeline is just months away from completion, the Baltic foreign affairs committee chairs ask the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs to act swiftly and implement robust oversight to ensure «this malign influence project - the Nord Stream 2 pipeline never sees completion».

Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland believes that the gas pipeline under development by Russia‘s Gazprom and a few other European companies would make Europe more dependent on Russian natural gas, thus delivering a blow to Ukraine as a transit country.

Despite the opposition from the US, including potential gas sanctions and many EU countries, Nord Stream 2 construction continues.