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22:35 GMT
WASHINGTON, July 21 (KUNA) -- The US still opposes the 'Nord Stream 2' project, which ensures the flow of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year running from Russia to Germany.
"There is not more that I'm prepared to add right now. We talked about this some yesterday," Spokesman for Department of State Ned Price said on Wednesday.
"And we talked about our rationale in approaching this challenge. And I made very clear yesterday, as did the president in his meeting with Chancellor Merkel earlier this month, that we continue to oppose Nord Stream 2," he told reporters in Washington.
"We continue to view it as a Kremlin geopolitical project, whose goal is to expand Russia's influence over Europe's energy resources.
"We continue to believe it's a bad deal for Germany, it's a bad deal for Ukraine, it's a bad deal for Europe and Europe's broader energy security goals.
"The Germans have put forward useful proposals. And we've been able to make progress on steps to achieve our shared goal. And that shared goal is very important."
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said "we're committed to following the law and continuing to examine entities that have engaged in potentially sanctioning behavior, as would be abiding by the law.
"That has not changed. This announcement today follows, of course, the meeting the president had with Chancellor Merkel last week where they said that they would be asking their teams to look at practical measures we could take together to address what our root issues are here, which we have voiced many times in the past," she added.
"So even though the pipeline was 90 percent, built, when the president took office, what our objective is, is to prevent or reduce the geopolitical impact that it was going to have," she noted. (end)
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