Germany is facing growing pressure to repudiate Nord Stream 2 over the Navalny affair: at home, from the ecologist Greens - potential coalition partners for Laschet's CDU - and abroad from the United States, and much of Europe. The German government is following the right course.'

Laschet's election to the CDU chair makes him the frontrunner to take over as chancellor from Merkel, who after 15 years in office has said she will not seek a fifth term following September elections.Īsked directly whether Germany should change course and renounce the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, Laschet replied: 'For 50 years, even in the aggressive times of the Cold War, Germany has bought gas from the Soviet Union, now from Russia. 'But feel-good moralising and domestic slogans are not foreign policy,' Laschet, who is premier of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said in an interview that focused on understanding his little-known views on international affairs.

Laschet, who last month won an election to the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said both values and interests were important in diplomacy.

purchases of crude oil from Russia, Armin Laschet described himself as a political realist - or 'Realpolitiker' - and said: 'We have to take the world as it is in order to make it better.' BERLIN, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Germany should not drop support for the planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia over the crackdown on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, as 'feel-good moralising' is not foreign policy, the man best placed to be the next German chancellor told Reuters.

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