The US president's national security advisor, John Bolton, criticized Europe's desire to increasingly "tie itself to Russian energy supplies" by supporting the Nord Stream 2 project during his visit to Ukraine.
"It's not just the economic significance of being heavily dependent on Russia for the supply of natural gas and petroleum, but the strategic significance of it as well," Bolton said.
The US national security advisor presented several solutions for the EU and Ukraine to reduce their dependency on Russian gas. Namely he offered these countries to buy it from Israel or import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US.
This idea was also earlier voiced by the US president himself. Trump claimed after talks with the EU Commission's president, Jean-Claude Juncker, that Europe would start buying US LNG in exchange for Washington lifting tariffs against European goods. Juncker later noted that Europe would start buying LNG from the US if it was priced more competitively.
READ MORE: Why US is Trying to Deprive Europe of Cheap Russian Natural Gas
US and European leaders have expressed concern that with the start of Nord Stream 2, Russia would abandon its oil pipeline going through Ukraine. The Russian president has assured, first during the Helsinki summit with Trump and later after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Ukraine would continue to play a role in gas transit from Russia to Europe after the launch of the new pipeline.
