Austria supports the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced this at a press conference in Moscow.
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“First of all, I would like to emphasize that I have a positive view of our economic relations in recent years...
There are two aspects that we talked about today; this is a long-term strategic interest not only for Russia, but, of course, also for European states such as Austria. Firstly, this is the extension of the broad-gauge railway to Austria. Both transport ministers met last week and overall we are positive about this project. True, there is a huge amount of investment required, but this is strategically correct and makes sense. We also said today that we must further develop this project together.
And the second big project is a project that concerns not only Austria, but also Germany and other countries, this is Nord Stream 2, and the Austrian Federal Government also supports it...
Austria is very positive about this project. Moreover, this is positive not only for us, but also for Germany and many other countries,” Kurz said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Nord Stream 2 will provide more reliable gas supplies to Europe.
“We are supporters of the implementation of this project, which, without any doubt, is completely depoliticized. This is a purely economic and, moreover, a purely commercial project, because the participants in this project count their profits, economic gains from its implementation and come to the conclusion that such implementation is advisable.
This, by the way, is not even an alternative to the Ukrainian route. If Ukraine presents economically sound parameters for the use of its gas transportation system, we have nothing against continuing cooperation with Ukraine. The only question is the volume of pumping.
But in any case, the implementation of projects of this kind, such as Nord Stream, Nord Stream 2, and Turkish Stream, will certainly diversify supplies, and therefore improve the quality of these supplies and increase stability.
We know that production in Europe is falling.
Liquefied natural gas is not competitive on the European market, at least today this is an obvious thing. And this will be the case for the next decade. Therefore, if our partners support this project, I repeat, we will do this too,” Putin said.