Speaking during a joint press event with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the recent bombings of the Nord Stream pipelines a "tremendous opportunity."
"On the subject of Nord Stream, Secretary and Minister, regardless of responsibility, obviously the energy supply situation in Europe is bad and only going to get worse as a result of this," a reporter asked. "I’m wondering if the two of you spoke at all today about what your two countries can do either independently or collectively to help to ease some of that pressure. And is there a heightened sense of danger in light of that if we’re talking about providing supplies – shipping supplies across the ocean, is it as simple as that or is it more complicated now as a result of these attacks?"
"First it’s important to make clear that these pipelines – that is, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 – were not pumping gas into Europe at this time. Nord Stream 2 never became operational, as is well known. Nord Stream 1 has been shut down for weeks because of Russia’s weaponization of energy," Blinken said. "There’s a lot of hard work to do to make sure that countries and partners get through the winter. Europe itself has taken very significant steps to both decrease demand but also look at ways to pursue the transition to renewables at the same time. And ultimately this is also a tremendous opportunity. It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. That’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come."
.@SecBlinken celebrates Nordstream bombings: "A tremendous opportunity to once & for all remove the dependence on Russian energy & thus to take away from Putin the weaponization of energy ... That's very significant & offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come" pic.twitter.com/ra64B00yqd
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 3, 2022
While the United States and European Union called the attacks on the pipeline sabotage and pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the culprit, an investigation has not been completed and past statements from President Joe Biden have increased suspicions about who is responsible.
Pres. Biden: "If Russia invades...then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it."
— ABC News (@ABC) February 7, 2022
Reporter: "But how will you do that, exactly, since...the project is in Germany's control?"
Biden: "I promise you, we will be able to do that." https://t.co/uruQ4F4zM9 pic.twitter.com/4ksDaaU0YC
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