Last Update: July 20
Update: Photo shooting session on July 16, 2018
Tomorrow morning the Helsinki summit is going to start where US president Trump and his Russian counterpart Putin will have to discuss subjects of common interest.
Trump's expectations of a summit that unites the "big leaders who really count" in a photo shooting session (like that with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un) will probably come true, however, the urgence of discussing one additional new item on the agenda might become a headache for Trump: The need to challenge Putin on the item of Russian intelligence officials interfering in the US presidential elections of 2016 and which brought about Trump's own inauguration as a president against all odds.
Besides it's mainly about "talking business" and which means the placement of each side on the European markets for natural gas, either from Russia (Northstream-II pipeline for gas from Siberia) or the USA (Liquid Natural Gas LNG).
As far as I remember, a first US project for liquidizing natural gas had been started by Shell in Afghanistan prior to the September 11 incidents. Thereafter Shell resumed their activities in Shanghai, China, and which were related to China's giant project of building a natural gas pipeline intended to join the Central Asian part of China with the industrial region of Shanghai.
That should be the reason for People's Daily Network to point at the Russian project Northstream-II and which would establish an alternative for Europe's energy supply.
The fact of US-Russian competition delivers, as well, an explanation for Trump's behaviour on the latest NATO summit when he bullied Germany by naming it "a Russian captive". That's just how powerseller Trump is functioning: "You are still better off as a US captive than a Russian captive."
“北溪－２”项目计划在波罗的海海底铺设管道，把俄罗斯天然气输送到德国， 再通过德国干线管道输送到其他欧洲国家。建成后，俄罗斯将向德国每年输气 ５５０亿立方米，可满足欧洲１０％的天然气需求。
The Northstream-II project plans to lay pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor, transport Russian gas to Germany, and then transport it to other European countries through the German trunk pipeline. After the completion, Russia will deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Germany and which can meet 10% of natural gas demand in Europe.
据报道，特朗普在出席北约峰会期间称“德国近７０％的天然气市场被俄罗斯控制”， 认为德国同意推进“北溪－２”项目“不可接受”。俄方则认为，特朗普批评“北溪－２”项目， 原因在于美国有意向欧洲出口液化天然气。
According to reports, during his attendance at the NATO summit, Trump said that "nearly 70% of the natural gas market in Germany is controlled by Russia", and that Germany agreed to promote the Northstream-II project "in an unacceptable way". The Russian side believes that Trump criticized the Northstream-II project because the United States intends to export Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe.
[People's Daily Network 人民网, Beijing, on July 14, 2018]
Helsinki citizens protest against, both, Putin and Trump on July 15, 2018. [The Guardian, UK]
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