President Joe Biden will be hosting German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz in the White House today (Monday, February 7, 2022), at a critical time for the leaders as tensions with Russia persist.
While the Biden administration has warned for weeks that Russia will face “severe” consequences if it invades Ukraine, Germany has often opted for a softer response, by refusing to send military equipment to Ukraine or deploy more troops to the eastern side.
Germany has also shown reluctance to shut down Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline that will carry gas directly to Germany, by passing Ukraine.
As it is, President Biden has rallied European allies to respond to Russia’s threats on Ukraine, the same way as its aggressive plan. Hence, Biden’s meeting with Scholz will be looking for Scholz to express unity with the US posture towards Russia.
Regarding Nord Stream 2 particularly, a senior Biden administration official was blunt saying: “We have made our position very clear, which is that if Russia invades Ukraine in one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward,” the official said in a briefing call with reporters.
While the official acknowledged “the narrative that’s been out there,” that Germany’s response to Russia has been lacking, they were not outright critical of Scholz’s hesitations thus far. But they declined to say whether US officials have already convinced the Germans to get on board with the plan to block Nord Stream 2 entirely if Russia’s Putin decides to move.
“We’re confident that the Germans share our concerns with Russian aggression, that they’re very involved in our ongoing efforts on both deterrence and diplomacy,” the official said.
“What I can say is that we will continue to work very closely with Germany to ensure the pipeline does not move forward.”
A Senior Biden administration official
When asked if the administration is working on ways to prevent the Nord Stream pipeline from becoming operational regardless of if Russia invades, the official emphasized the US opposition to the project overall.
“There is not currently any gas flowing through the pipeline. And there won’t be any gas for months, in part because of the diplomacy that the United States has been able to do on this issue with Germany,” the official noted.
Reports to the media suggest that Putin now has on the Ukrainian border, 70% of the troops necessary to possibly launch a full-scale attack on Ukraine. With US intelligence indicating Putin is preparing for a large-scale invasion, the senior administration official said key allies like Germany are being kept aware of the situation.
“I absolutely think that our countries are unified in terms of awareness of the risk of further Russian aggression to Ukraine. We have been for a long time sharing intelligence with Germany with the rest of our allies. And I think there is absolutely absolute agreement, that if there is further Russian aggression, that there’s a number of things that need to be done in terms of deployment of additional troops to the eastern flank, and to the imposition of a large package of economic sanctions.”
A Senior Biden administration official
Scholz’s visit comes almost two months (December 7, 2021) to the day since taking office, highlighting the importance of the US-German relationship.
Biden first met with Scholz in October at the G-2 summit, when former Chancellor Angela Merkel invited (Scholz) the then-finance minister to accompany her to meet with Biden. As a result, it gave the two leaders the chance to meet abroad, ahead of Scholz’s take over.
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