German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the new US sanctions penalising the contractors who are helping build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the state media reported on Saturday.
"Such sanctions are a blatant interference in the internal affairs of Germany and Europe and their sovereignty. We firmly reject them," he said in an interview with German-broadcaster ARD.
Scholz, who also serves as Germany's Finance Minister, stressed this was not how friends and NATO partners should treat one other.
US President Donald Trump signed a USD 738-billion defence budget bill on Wednesday, which included sanctions against companies building the Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany that the Congress feared would give the Kremlin dangerous leverage over European allies.
It will bring Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea.