The US President Joe Biden and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have pledged to stay united against Russia while the disagreements on issues like the Nord Stream pipeline remain.

Merkel is on her last visit to the US as the German Chancellor at the end of her fourth term as the German head of the state.

Both the leaders agreed that the relationship between the two countries during the Trump Presidency was not as good.

On a personal note, I must tell you I will miss seeing you at our summits,” Biden said as he stood by Merkel, the second-longest serving chancellor in Germany’s history, during a late afternoon joint news conference on Wednesday. “I truly will.”

Merkel, in turn, repeatedly referred to Biden as “Dear Joe”.

“I value the friendship,” she told reporters while hailing the US and Germany as sharing the same values and “determination to tackle the challenges of our times”.

On Russia, Biden and Merkel were careful to stress unity on standing up to “aggression” as they navigated a longstanding disagreement over the nearly-completed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which would deliver gas from the Arctic to Germany via the Baltic Sea, bypassing

Washington has long opposed the $11bn project, arguing that it will threaten European energy security by increasing the continent’s reliance on Russian gas and allowing Moscow to exert political pressure on vulnerable Eastern and Central European nations.

Merkel, for her part, repeated Berlin’s stance that the pipeline is intended as an additional project, not a replacement for Ukraine as a gas transit route. She added that Russia could face EU sanctions if it violated its agreement to continue shipping gas supplies through Ukraine.

Ukraine and depriving it of valuable transit fees.