Moscow, July 05: Russia and the Vatican are in the final stages of deciding to upgrade their diplomatic relations to ambassadorial level, President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
“We have relations at the level of representatives, now we are discussing the possibility of boosting ties to a full format, to make them ambassadorial, fully-fledged diplomatic relations,” Medvedev said.
“And it seems to me that this would be perfectly normal,” state-run Itar-Tass news agency today quoted Medvedev as telling an Italian media.
Relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church have been uneasy after the previous Moscow patriarch accused Catholics of proselytising in Russia.
However, there appears to be a desire for a rapprochement under the new Russian Patriarch Kirill, formerly the Russian Orthodox Church’s head of foreign relations.
—Agencies