Moscow is hoping to resume its dialogue over visa cancellation with the European Union (EU) after the EU lifts its sanctions, said Russian Foreign Ministry's Special Ambassador Anvar Azimov.
“We would like to hope that with the departure by our partners from counter-productive and unfounded sanctions measures, and with the political will of EU leaders, we will resume the Russian-EU visa-free dialogue and steer it towards its original goal: to lift visa barriers. Russia is prepared for it,” Azimov said ahead of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Review Conference. The text of his speech has been posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
“Russia’s course is (aimed) at easing visa requirements and finally lifting them in the long term,” Azimov said. “Currently, we have agreements facilitating visa issuance virtually with all the OSCE countries. We have achieved substantial results on this path together with the EU. Until the well-known Ukrainian events, we were moving confidently from visa liberalization agreements towards cancelling visas altogether for short-term trips between Russia and EU,” the ambassador said.
“The future is in building a common humanitarian space and lifting visa requirements between the OSCE member states. This would be a manifestation of genuine trust and mutual understanding and serve a potent stimulus for strengthening and broadening first and foremost human contacts. So we strongly urge those states, which are not ready to honor their political obligations to ease and cancel visa requirements, as provided in the Helsinki Final Act, to review their positions,” he said.
