Biden appoints envoy to oversee US-Germany deal on Nord Stream 2: reports

Washington [US] August 9 (ANI/Sputnik): US President Joe Biden has appointed a special energy envoy Amos Hochstein to oversee the implementation of the July deal between Washington and Berlin on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, Axios reported on Monday citing sources.

Hochstein was formerly the US Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017. He stepped down from the supervisory board of Ukraine’s Naftogaz in October 2020 and has prominently expressed opposition to the Nord Stream 2 project. The new Biden appointee will focus primarily on the pipeline deal but will also play a broader global energy role in the administration, the report said.

A source close to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that the Ukrainians remain open-minded about Hochstein and do not doubt his good faith, according to the report. A source cited in the report said that Germany had also established its own special envoy to deal directly with the US side.

In July, Germany and the US struck a deal that implies the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline without the threat of American sanctions. Among the conditions stipulated in the deal, Germany vowed to prevent Russia from “using energy as a weapon” and to use all possible leverage to prolong Russian gas transit through Ukraine. (ANI/Sputnik)