The leaders of Germany and Russia are officially opening a euro7.4 billion ($10.2 billion) natural gas pipeline that directly links western Europe with Siberia's vast gas reserves.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev were meeting Tuesday, November 8, in the village of Lubmin on Germany's Baltic Seacoast where the 1,200-kilometer (760-mile) Nord Stream underwater pipeline reaches land.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte are also attending the ceremony in a sign of the political importance of Europe's newest energy link, meant to strengthen the security of the gas supply, The Associated Press reported.

The pipeline is to ferry the gas from near St. Petersburg under the Baltic Sea to Lubmin by circumventing traditional overland transit routes in Poland and Ukraine.