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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Wednesday, January 5, that Russia must ease pressure on Ukraine if it wants to make progress, as he reconfirmed a warning of “massive consequences” in the event of an invasion.
Russia and the United States hold talks next week in Geneva after Moscow rallied tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border and asked the West for guarantees against the expansion of the NATO alliance.
“If the talks are to show real progress, it will require escalation,” Blinken told a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Noting Russia’s hopes for progress in areas such as arms control, Blinken said: “It is very difficult to make actual progress in any of these areas in an atmosphere of escalation and the threat of a Ukrainian-led weapon. ”.
“Russia should have no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and heavy costs in response,” Blinken said.
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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on her first visit to Washington since taking office, agreed on the need for “serious consequences” if Russia attacks Ukraine.
The United States and Germany have been at loggerheads for years over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which will open and deliver Russian gas directly to Europe’s largest economy.
“From our point of view, it is very difficult to see the gas flowing through that pipeline become operational if Russia continues its aggression,” said Secretary Blinken, according to AFP.
Although it produced criticism in the country, President Joe Biden’s administration has refused to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream pipeline, saying it was virtually completed.
But the US administration last year reached an agreement in which Germany promised aid to Ukraine and warned Russia against using the pipeline for geopolitical advantages.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, when asked if Germany was ready to cancel the pipeline, said only that the new government supported last year’s agreement with the United States.
The new government “agreed that we should take effective action together with our European partners if Russia uses energy as a weapon,” she said.
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