Biden and Scholz Prepare for Putin's Next Move
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How important are Europe's energy sources to the plans German Chancellor Sholz and the President Biden formulate with Russia? Council President and former Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder weighs in on CNN with Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota, joined by Major General James "Spider" Marks.
"Alternative sources of energy are necessary," says Ambassador Daalder. "It's not just Nord Stream 2, it is gas supplies through a whole variety of pipelines into Europe. Europe consumes about 40 percent of its gas through Russian imports, so those would have to be replaced. Qatar of course is a major exporter of natural gas, so is Australia, and so, by the way, is the United States.
"So there is an opportunity here to find alternative sources of gas, and the administration has been working very hard over the last few weeks to provide some sense of how the United States and the European Union can provide gas at affordable prices to the citizens of Europe if and when sanctions need to be imposed and Russia perhaps retaliates by closing off those gas lines.
"This is a major way in which you solidify the NATO alliance: by looking at all of the options, all the consequences of taking actions in response to Russian actions, in order to keep NATO together."