Erdogan speaks about Trump’s and Merkel’s argument regarding Russian gas
At the NATO summit in Brussels July 11-12, US President Donald Trump rebuked allies in the alliance for paying too much for Russian gas, but the Turkish and German leaders argued with him, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports Milliyet.
According to Erdogan, at the summit, Trump accused those gathered of “feeding Russia." "You [Turkey] are paying as much as Germany," said the American president.
Trump did not mention Turkey “out of politeness,” Erdogan feels. Nevertheless, he “couldn’t stop himself” and argued with the American president. “We buy 50% of our gas from Russia. If we do not buy it, our citizens will freeze in the winter,” the Turkish leader recounted.
Then, according to Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported him and said that Germany buys 38% of its gas from Russia and cannot allow the German people to freeze.
“Turkey’s position on sanctions has been known for some time. We will not refuse strategic goods,” stressed Erdogan.
Washington believes that Russia is using natural resources to apply political pressure on Western countries. In July, Trump said that due to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Germany will become Russia’s hostage. Later he mentioned that the US does not plan to impose sanctions against the project, but still considers it “bad”.
Merkel denied that Germany will become dependent on Russia because of the Nord Stream 2. She noted that at the same time, an LNG terminal is being built in Germany. Moscow, however, states that the opposition to the Nord Stream 2 was caused by Washington’s desire to sell European consumers liquefied natural gas from the United States.