German chancellor Olaf Scholz has welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans for more oil and gas exports, saying it was “good for Europe and Germany,” German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Sunday.
Scholz said in the interview the move would help in the transition phase towards climate neutrality, which would last until around the middle of the century.
“More supply on the global market means lower energy prices,” the chancellor said.
Scholz praised Trump for wanting to build new terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), something his predecessor Joe Biden did not do. Scholz said he was always opposed to stopping the expansion of LNG terminals in the United States.
However, Scholz said he regretted Trump’s executive order last week to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
“Global warming is a serious danger,” Scholz said, adding that Germany will continue its course in climate policy.
On a separate topic, the social democrat chancellor sharply criticised his conservative rival in Germany, Friedrich Merz, over his stance on the ongoing debate about migration into the country.
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr and Andreas Rinke, editing by Clelia Oziel)