Russia maintaining visa liberalization dialogue with Asia Pacific countries - Russian diplomat

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia is maintaining dialogue with many Asian Pacific states on the liberalization of the visa regime or abolition of visa restrictions, Yevgeny Ivanov, director of the Russian foreign ministry’s consular department, said in an interview with TASS on Monday. "We continue active dialogue on issues of visa liberalization or visa abolishment with many countries of the Asia Pacific region," he said. "Thus, the recent visit to Moscow by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yielded an agreement on simplified visa issuance procedures for the two countries’ businessmen." As for Iran, he said an intergovernmental agreement on simplified visa issuance procedures for certain categories of citizens had been signed in November 2015 during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Teheran. "Now we expecting our Iranian partners to confirm that they have completed all necessary domestic procedures, after which the agreement is to come into force," he said. The Russian diplomat also said agreements on visa abolition for holders of diplomatic and service passports had been signed in 2015 with a number of foreign states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Senegal, Singapore and the Republic of Congo. "As a rule, such agreement are the first step towards mutual abolishment of visa formalities for holders of all types of passports," Ivanov stressed. "Visa-free travel for holders of regular passports was established this year in relations with the Seychelles and Guyana," he said. "A similar agreement with Mauritius was signed on December 23." The full text of the interview is available at the TASS website: http://tass.ru/obschestvo/2561416 Read more