Russia and the European Union should coordinate a plan to switch over to a visa-free regime as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.
"In the Russia-EU relations, I would pick out the global task of coordinating a specific plan to transfer to a visa-free regime. This task is long overripe," Lavrov said.
On January 13, the Russian foreign minister said Russia and the EU will move closer to introducing a mutual visa-free travel regime this year, adding that scrapping the visa regime would be a test to prove that Russia and the EU have a strategic partnership.
The Kremlin has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly declared the country's readiness to scrap the visa regime with the EU.
However, the European Union has been deadlocked over the thorny issue amid concerns that a visa-free regime could lead to a rise in crime and illegal immigration.
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