天然ガスを巡る米露関係と欧州でのNord Stream 2を巡る論争

抄録

The appointment of Mr. Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of the State by Mr. Trump prior to the inauguration of his administration at the end of 2016 was thought a strong message that the No. 1 businessman of USA in the Russian business community is going to manage the USA diplomacy. However, Mr. Michael Flynn, a presidential assistant, was prosecuted for his close contact with the Russian agent, and the “Russia Gate” is under investigation by FBI which is a serious issue for the administration. So, Mr. Tillerson had to correct his political stand to cope with the parliament, since the US diplomatic policy concerning Russia was virtually run by the parliament not by the President. In addition to that, “Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act”, which was drafted by the parliament members and became effective on August 2^nd, 2017, provides for further sanction against Russia and at the same time restrains the construction of the Nord Stream 2, a direct gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, for the reason of avoidance of too much concentration of one gas source, i.e. Russia, in the EU market. This issue created a splitting in Europe, since leading EU countries like Germany, France and Austria put a premium of the commercial value and would like to purchase cheap and stable gas from anywhere, while Ukraine and Poland wary about too much reliance on the Russian gas, which sometimes works, they believe, as a political weapon to control the consuming countries. The United States is in the position to check the influence of Russia in the European energy market and has same opinion with Ukraine and Poland. However, this is not all the points of confrontation among European countries. Ukraine and Poland have been enjoying benefits as transit countries of the Russian gas pipelines. The Nord Stream 2 was designed to detour these countries to avoid any disorder of transportation of gas, which means Ukraine and Poland will not be able to receive transit fees. These two countries are superficially warning the risk of too much dependence on Russian gas, but the fact is that their economy depend heavily on the transit fees of gas from Russia and these countries don’t want to lose them.