U.S. plans to build a high-tech missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are dangerous and absurd, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Sunday.
Popularity: 2% [?]
March 12, 2007Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder defended Russia’s record as an energy supplier and insisted that a planned German-Russian pipeline will not compete with existing supply routes.
Schroeder, who left office last November, now serves as chairman of the North European Gas Pipeline consortium, which is building the pipeline under the Baltic Sea. The project has infuriated Poland, which it will bypass, and comes amid concern in Europe over the continent’s dependence on Russian gas.
“It has been said again and again that this pipeline is not a competing project with the existing pipelines through Ukraine and the … pipeline that touches the Baltic (states) and Poland,†Schroeder said, quoted by Associated Press. “We have rising demand and dwindling resources of our own.â€
The former chancellor, who is currently promoting his memoirs, also dismissed concerns over Russia’s reliability. Russia’s decision earlier this year to cut gas deliveries to neighboring Ukraine disrupted natural gas supplies elsewhere.
“For more than 30 years Europe —- particularly Germany —- has not had the slightest reason to doubt the delivery loyalty, once of the Soviet Union and now of Russia,†he said.
Schroeder, who was a strong ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has rejected criticism at home for becoming involved in a project that he championed while in office.
On Wednesday, he reiterated his argument that “this project is of enormous significance in supplying Western Europe with gas.â€
Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom holds a controlling 51 percent stake in the pipeline consortium, while German companies BASF AG and E.On AG each have 24.5 percent.
“Possibly, and the talks are well advanced, on the side of the European companies a Dutch one will be added,†Schroeder said. He did not elaborate.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 2, 2006
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