"Despite all of the factors that have been working against the project, we expect the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be completed soon," Novak said.
He added that the pipeline was a strategic project in which many European and Russian energy companies had invested, which was considered promising.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has met with several challenges to its construction, including, most recently, the United States Congress approving sanctions on companies involved in the project.
Following Washington's decision, both Moscow and Berlin rejected the restrictions against Nord Stream 2, stressing it would be launched despite the pressure from the US.
The project is a joint venture between Russia's Gazprom and five European companies — France's ENGIE, Austria's OMV, the UK-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall. It involves the construction of two pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year running from the Russian coast via the Baltic Sea to Germany, allowing for the delivery of natural gas and bypassing the existing routes through Eastern Europe.
While Moscow and Berlin stressed that the pipeline has a purely commercial nature, the US has claimed that it poses a danger to European security and urged the European countries to stop the project and to buy more expensive LNG from across the Atlantic.
