Trump vetoed US defense budget including sanctions against Nord Stream 2

US President Donald Trump has vetoed a $740 billion annual defence budget bill approved by Congress, DW says.

The project “runs counter to my administration’s foreign and national security policies,” Trump wrote on Wednesday, December 23, in a letter sent to the House of Representatives.

Trump called the bill "a gift for China and Russia," without specifying what exactly he meant.

The bill also provides for the introduction of new sanctions against companies promoting the sale, lease or provision of pipe-laying vessels for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. Besides, it envisages further arms supplies to Ukraine, a ban on cooperation between the American and Russian military, and sanctions against Turkey to purchase Russian S-400 air defence systems.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the same day that the House of Representatives would vote on December 28 to overturn Trump's veto on the defence budget bill. In a statement, she called Trump's ban "an act of startling recklessness that harms American troops" and threatens US national security.

As reported, the United States was preparing new sanctions against Nord Stream 2.