On the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, Bohdan Aurescu spoke about eliminating the EU’s dependence on the Russian Federation, stressing that he is open “in the future to make decisions on restricting the movement of Russian citizens in the European Union, with an emphasis on visa tourism.”

Bohdan AurescuPhoto: Government, Facebook

“It is important to support Ukraine (…), we supported a significant part of grain transit from Ukraine through Romania. By August 17, more than 3.4 million tons of grain from Ukraine passed through Romania, almost half of all Ukrainian grain exports,” said the head of Romanian diplomacy before the start of the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union member states in Prague.

Aurescu also talked about the military support that the EU provides to the neighboring country, as well as the need to put pressure on Russia.

“We support the complete suspension of the Visa Facilitation Agreement and are open to future decisions on restrictions on the movement of Russian citizens in the European Union, focusing on tourist visas. Of course, for this we need a reliable legal framework.” On the one hand, we must be very careful not to block the new generation in Russia of European values, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is important not to ban humanitarian visas, those used for medical reasons, or those granted to opponents of the regime or threatened by the Russian regime,” added the Romanian minister, according to Agerpres.

In context, he explained that Romania, not being a member of the Schengen area, separately issues visas for Russian citizens, and since the beginning of the war, about 800 have been issued, of which only 130 were tourist visas.

Aurescu also spoke about the future prospects of EU-Russia relations, adding that everything cannot return to the “business as usual” formula. “It is too early to assess what the future relations between the EU and Russia will be, because it depends on the development of events in Ukraine, but one thing is clear – we must eliminate any dependence on Russia,” he said.