Ukrainian ruling party leader Davyd Arakhamia said that he expects the closed-door part of the upcoming meeting of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden to be "heated" due to the Nord Stream 2 deal recently reached by the United States and Germany.
Zelensky is expected to pay a visit to the White House on August 30.
"I expect, taking into account the degree [of tension in relations], that at least the closed-door meeting of Zelenskyy and Biden will be heated. Today, the US largely underestimates or maybe pretends to underestimate, the blow it has delivered by such an action [the deal on Nord Stream 2]. Using diplomatic language [they] say that 'we are deeply disturbed' and so on, but in the non-diplomatic [language] people call it what it is... Everybody understands that ... flirting [of the US] with Russia is, actually, an informal anti-China coalition," the Servant of the People party leader said, as quoted by the Ukraina24 broadcaster on Thursday.
Arakhamia has noted that Ukraine receives numerous letters from US congressmen willing to attend the meeting despite the summer recess.
The politician labeled Nord Stream 2 a geopolitical project and said that Ukraine's allies on Nord Stream 2 in Europe include the United Kingdom, Poland, and the Baltic states. And a consolidated position on the project is already being discussed with all the allies.
"Every country has its expat community in the US - Polish, Baltic ones, they have contacts. We aspire to consolidate every contact into the united position in Congress now. Because when the Congress starts to work in September, you will see, that it will be strongly opposed to this decision of Biden," he added.
Last week, Germany and the US struck a deal that implies the completion of the Nord Stream 2 twin pipeline without the threat of American sanctions. Among the conditions stipulated in the deal, Germany vowed to prevent Russia from "using energy as a weapon" and to use all possible leverage to prolong Russian gas transit through Ukraine. However, Kyiv sees Nord Stream 2 as a threat to its energy security. Currently, the pipeline is reported to be 99% completed. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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