Top German, US officials discuss Nord Stream 2 pipeline

Washington, June 3 : High-ranking government representatives of the US and the Germany held discussions over the disputed German-Russian gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2.

US President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met German Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign policy advisor Jan Hecker on Wednesday, the National Security Council in Washington announced.

Their talks also focused on US concerns about the impact of the pipeline on Ukraine and European energy security, dpa news agency reported.

Other topics included the upcoming summits of the G7 and NATO countries, the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and cybersecurity.

The German Chancellor's Office did not want to comment on possible results of the meeting when asked on Thursday.

A spokesperson merely referred to the statement made the day before by deputy government spokesperson Martina Fietz, according to which such meetings were part of the normality of US-German cooperation.

In May, the US government had deliberately refrained from imposing sanctions on the company operating the pipeline.

In a report from the State Department to the US Congress, it was stated that not imposing sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG in Zug, Switzerland, its German managing director Matthias Warnig and four other employees was in the "national interest".

The justification given was that such sanctions would have negatively affected US relations with Germany, the EU and other European allies and partners.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, had stressed that the US remained strictly opposed to Nord Stream 2.