Angela Merkel News

The German government has become divided over a deal, agreed last month, which saw Chinese conglomerate Cosco invest in the Port of Hamburg. The deal had been in the works since September 2021 and was championed by the chancellor (and Hamburg’s former mayor), Olaf Scholz.Scholz’s coalition partners have been vocal in criticising the deal. Chief among them is Robert Habeck, Greens member and Scholz’s economics minister, who expressed his fear that Germany was becoming dependent on Chinese business.

Windfall revenues from high European gas prices mean Russia's Gazprom will not start pumping gas through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline before certification and it will not press Germany to speed up the process, two sources said.Pumping gas without the German approval would only incur a modest fine, but as Germany gets new political leadership and Russia's ties with the West are severely strained, a source at Gazprom said it was content to wait."We don't want to seek faster approval for the pipeline.

A group of U.S. Senate Republicans said on Monday they had introduced legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a Russian-backed natural gas pipeline that opponents believe would be harmful to U.S. allies in Europe.The six lawmakers, led by Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered the measure as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a sweeping defense policy bill that is one of…

There are only 15 km (9 miles) left to finish the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that bypasses Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.The $11 billion project doubling the capacity of the first Nord Stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters a year has been a focal point of tensions between Moscow and the West.Despite U.S. sanctions, Nord Stream 2 is almost complete and the key question is how Russia will ship its gas to Europe once a current…

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction is 99% complete, the operating company said on Wednesday, after a media report the Russian-led project, which has come under criticism from the United States, is expected to be finished on Aug.

The United States and Germany on Wednesday unveiled an agreement on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under which Berlin pledged to respond to any attempt by Russia to use energy as a weapon against Ukraine and other Central and Eastern European countries.The pact aims to mitigate what critics see as the strategic dangers of the $11 billion pipeline, now 98% complete, being built under the Baltic Sea to carry gas from Russia’s Arctic region to Germany.U.S. officials have opposed the pipeline…

President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed on Thursday to settle their dispute over Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline but said they agreed that Moscow must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon to coerce its neighbors."Good friends can disagree," Biden told reporters after two meetings with Merkel at the White House, adding that both leaders had asked their teams to look at practical measures they could take together if Russia's actions posed a…

Ukraine can be confident that Germany and the European Union will guarantee its status as a transit country for Russian gas even after the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has opened, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday.Merkel made the remarks during a news conference with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy three days before she holds talks in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration is against the almost completed pipeline."The European Union and Germany will see to it that this continues in the future beyond 2024," said Merkel.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he decided to waive sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline because the project was nearly complete, and doing so could have harmed ties with Europe.Biden, who is preparing for his first visit to Europe and his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month, told reporters he had opposed the new pipeline since its inception, but held off on sanctions because it was "almost completely finished" by the time he took office in January.Asked why he was letting Germany and Russia complete the project…

Germany's coordinator for transatlantic relations called on Wednesday for a moratorium on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, breaking ranks with many in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.The United States is opposed to the project, saying it increases Europe's reliance on Russian energy and U.S. President Joe Biden is dangling the threat of sanctions."The project is a serious obstacle for a new start in transatlantic relations…

Oil prices jumped about 6% on Wednesday after a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, and worries that the incident could tie up crude shipments gave prices a boost after a slide over the last week.The crude benchmarks, U.S. crude and London-based Brent, added to gains after U.S. inventory figures showed a further rebound in refining activity, suggesting U.S. refiners are mostly recovered from the cold snap that slammed Texas in February.Brent crude settled at $64.41 a barrel, gaining $3.62, or 6%, after tumbling 5.9% the previous day.

Germany's Greens have enshrined in their election programme plans to abolish the contested Nord Stream 2 pipeline to ship Russian gas to Europe's biggest economy, creating a hurdle to a potential alliance with the conservatives.Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, who have backed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline opposed by the United States, are leading in polls ahead of September elections and are seen as most likely to seek a coalition with the ecologist Greens that are forecast to come second.Armin Laschet…

The consortium behind the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline has resumed laying pipes in the waters of Denmark, it said on Saturday, despite mounting pressure on the project from Washington.Construction of the link, which would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters of gas per year, was suspended in December 2019 due to the threat of sanctions from Washington.However the German government has stood by the project and late in December a vessel called the Fortuna…

Russia has resumed construction of the politically-charged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, laying pipes after a one-year hiatus prompted by U.S. sanctions, the pipeline operator said on Friday.An alleged nerve agent attack on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in August was the latest political controversy to hit the nearly-completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as Germany debates whether to halt the project as part of potential sanctions against Russia.Led by Russia's Gazprom with Western partners…

Turkey will not abandon its rights and interests in the eastern Mediterranean because of possible European Union sanctions or criticism, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.At a summit on Friday, EU leaders agreed to prepare limited sanctions on Turkish individuals over a row with Greece and Cyprus about offshore energy exploration but postponed discussions on any harsher steps until March.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the summit that EU leaders planned to discuss weapons exports to Turkey with allies in the NATO military alliance following a Greek push for an arms embargo on Ankara.Answering questions in parliament as part of annual budget talks, Cavusoglu said: “It is out of the question for us to abandon our rights and interests in the eastern Mediterranean bec

London and Brussels agreed on Sunday to “go the extra mile” in coming days to try to reach an elusive trade agreement despite missing their latest deadline to avert a turbulent exit for Britain from the European Union’s orbit at the end of the month.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the president of the EU’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen had given negotiators a Sunday deadline to find a way to resolve an impasse on arrangements that would guarantee Britain zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the EU’s single market.On Sunday they mandated negotiators to continue…

The world's largest group of shipping insurers will not insure vessels involved in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream gas pipeline projects because of the threat of U.S. sanctions.Associations belonging to the International Group of P&I Clubs, including the Shipowners' Club and the London P&I Club, said in a circular on Monday that it would not provide cover "for any activity involving or related to the Nord Stream 2 or TurkStream construction projects".It said members…

Berlin offered to spend 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build two liquid natural gas terminals in a bid to dissuade the United States from imposing sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, due to bring gas directly from Russia to Germany, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday.The weekly paper said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz made the proposal in an Aug. 7 letter before Washington imposed sanctions on companies involved in building the Baltic Sea pipeline, effectively freezing its…

Turkey dispatched a vessel to conduct a seismic survey in a disputed area in the eastern Mediterranean, a move which Greece said was illegal and is likely to heighten tensions between the two NATO allies.The advisory issued by the Turkish navy said the Oruc Reis vessel would operate in the area over the next two weeks.The two countries are at odds due to overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources in the region. A similar advisory, or Navtex, last month prompted a dispute that was calmed after the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading Turkey to agree a pause in operations.But President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday…

Germany has awarded Dutch shipyard Damen a contract to construct at least four new multi-role warships worth nearly 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in an alliance with its Bremen-based partner Luerssen, the armed forces and budget lawmakers said on Tuesday.The ship tender is one of Germany's biggest arms projects, along with a contract for the MEADS missile defence system and the new Franco-German fighter jet (FCAS), underlining Berlin's efforts to increase its military capabilities.The first warship is expected to be delivered in 2027…

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be completed in a matter of months and U.S. sanctions imposed on the project last week would not be "catastrophic".Russia's new gas transit deal with Ukraine would also mollify the impact on Russian gas supplies of U.S. sanctions introduced on the pipeline project, he said.Last week a major contractor suspended work on the Nord Stream 2 project, which is led by Russia's Gazprom, due to U.S. sanctions introduced by U.S.

The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is to call for more international support to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz when he meets his French and German counterparts later today (Friday, August 31) for talks about Iran. Last month, Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait in apparent retaliation for the UK’s seizure in Gibraltar of an Iranian ship accused of violating European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.The UK joined a U.S.-led mission to escort merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz at the start of this month but Germany and France declined to take part…

Iran on Friday denied President Donald Trump's assertion that the U.S. Navy has destroyed one of its drones, saying all of its unmanned planes were accounted for, amid growing international concern that both sides could blunder into a war in the Gulf.In the latest episode to test nerves around the strategic waterway, Trump said on Thursday the drone had flown to within 1,000 yards (914 metres) of the U.S. warship Boxer in a "provocative and hostile action" and had ignored several calls to stand down.Iran dismissed the report."All drones belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz ... returned safely to their bases after their mission of identification and control…