In an interview with Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said both the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were intended to be "projects aimed at breaking apart the unity of the West."
"The German government allowed itself to be caught in this Russian trap, and now the Joe Biden administration is falling into it. This will lead to an escalation of Russia's aggressive behavior," Rau said.
Nord Stream 2, designed to double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline, is expected to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Poland has strongly criticized the gas link amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has told American magazine Newsweek he is “very disappointed” that US President Joe Biden has refused to implement sanctions on the company building the pipeline.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month announced that Biden's administration had waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company behind the contested undersea gas pipeline, and its CEO Matthias Warnig.
'Direct threat to peace in Europe'
Rau said he had learned of the US decision from the media. "Our American allies did not find the time to consult the region of the world the most vulnerable to the impact of this decision."
He added: "This gas pipeline will radically strengthen the common interests of Germany and Russia, and will pose a direct threat to peace in Europe. The military threat to Ukraine, as well as to Poland and other NATO countries in Central Europe, will increase."
(pk)
Source: Rzeczpospolita/IAR