Thaindian News

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE (BNO NEWS) — Russia is expected to soon allow visa-free travel between Russia and the European Union (EU), President Dmity Medvedev said on Tuesday.

The Russian leader was in Deauville, France on Tuesday for a trilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It was the first such trilateral meeting in five years.

During the trilateral talks, according to the Kremlin, the three leaders exchanged views on the future European security architecture, focusing, in particular, on the European Security Treaty.

Russia’s relations with the European Union were also reviewed, including the Russian-German initiative to establish a Russia-EU Foreign and Security Policy Committee at the ministerial level, and Sarkozy’s proposal to create a single economic and security space between Russia and the EU.

But another important topic was the introduction of a visa-free regime between the European Union and Russia. “An important issue for us is scrapping visas between Russia and Europe,” Medvedev said. “As you know, we’ve been working to make this happen.”

Medvedev, during the meeting, proposed to draft a roadmap for the abolition of visas between Russia and the European Union and discuss its main points at the December EU-Russia summit.

The leaders of the three countries also exchanged views on the Iranian nuclear program during the meeting. Dmitry Medvedev noted that the parties have agreed to adhere to the current policies, while at the same time encouraging Iran to cooperate on all issues.

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany first decided to hold trilateral talks in 1998. Since then, meetings in this format were held in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The three countries’ leaders decided to return to the trilateral format this summer, during the G20 Summit in Canada.