Plans to Make Travel Between Russia and European Union Visa Free

By Terry Green
Oct 19 2010

It has been reported today in Deauville, France that the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is going to announce visa free travel between European Union and Russia.

The Russian president was present in Deauville for the trilateral meeting between himself, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is one of the first meeting between these countries in a period of five years.

The leaders as told by the Kremlin discussed the future of European Security Architecture. The views were exchanged keeping in mind European Security Treaty. The leaders also discussed the relationship of Russia with the European Union. This included the German – Russian initiative to establish a ministerial level EU – Russia Security and Foreign Policy Committee.

The French president also proposed at the meeting to create a single security and economic space between EU and Russia.

One of the more important things that were discussed was the scrapping of visas for travel between the EU and Russia. The Russian president said that they were working towards making this happen. He also said that a roadmap be prepared for the ending of visa restrictions.

There were also talks about the Iranian nuclear program between the leaders of the three countries. The Russian president said that such policies that were being followed by them will be continued. They would also encourage Iran to cooperate on all the outstanding matters.

It was in 1998 that the leaders of the three countries first decided to hold trilateral talks. These meetings were held again in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The leaders from the three countries decided to resume this trilateral arrangement in Canada at the G20 summit.