By Evgeniya Chaykovskaya

Source:

October 19, 2010

Leaders of Russia, Germany and France issued a joint statement on Tuesday to pave the way for a visa-free regime between Russia and the European Union.

Dmitry Medvedev, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy said that they hope the Russia-EU summit in December would see progress in bilateral talks on scrapping visas, RIA Novosti reported.

“We will work with Russia in the atmosphere of trust… especially on the issue of visas,” Sarkozy told a press conference after talks with Medvedev and Merkel.

Moscow has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rebuked the EU in late September for dragging its heels on the issue, saying that Russia wanted a “clear answer.”