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Of the pipeline, Biden said “good friends may disagree” and noted that it was almost finished when he took office while defending his decision to lift sanctions against the company originally. of the pipeline.
“It made more sense to work with the Chancellor to find out how she would proceed depending on whether or not Russia was trying to blackmail Ukraine somehow,” Biden said, noting that he had asked their teams to consider practical steps they could take. together.
Biden and Merkel did not expect to come out of Thursday’s meeting with a deal on Nord Stream 2, although the White House has clearly wanted concrete steps to be set to ensure that Russia cannot exploit the pipeline against the interests of other countries.
In her remarks, Merkel said the two leaders had “come to different assessments as to what this project entails,” but said they agreed that Ukraine remains a transit country for natural gas and is entitled to territorial sovereignty.
The two leaders said that Germany and the United States are launching a climate and energy partnership, describing the climate push as common ground between the two countries.
The partnership focuses on three areas: climate action, energy technologies and energy transitions in emerging economies.
The third topic has the stated objective of increasing sustainable energy in these economies and “preventing the use of energy as a coercive tool”. Biden said the partnership will support energy security, the development of sustainable energy technologies and emerging economies such as Ukraine.
In contrast to the relationship between Merkel and former President Donald Trump, the German Chancellor described the US-German climate partnership as a “very important message”, saying that countries want to rely on technology “oriented towards the climate. ‘future’ like renewable energies.
Before Biden took office, Trump ticked off Merkel when he said Germany was controlled by Russia, then hit the Nord Stream 2 project with sanctions.
Merkel’s visit to the White House was her first since 2019. She called her conversation with Biden enjoyable, noting that “we all share the same values” – also a significant change in tone from the Trump era.
Biden is the fourth and last president Merkel visited during her tenure as chancellor. She will step down after the German elections in September.
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