EU citizens don't need a passport to travel across the EU (even outside the Schengen area, where you have to go through a border check), they just need an identity card.
(most) EU citizens could also travel to Turkey with their identity card.
EU citizens could travel to the UK with their identity card, for a few years after Brexit, as long as they got UK (pre-)settled status.
Russian citizens can travel to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan without their international passport. They instead have an "internal" passport (meant to be used like an identity card, and for travel to closed towns inside the country), which is recognised by those other countries.
The same applies in the other direction for citizens of nearby countries travelling to Russia (even in the case of an Abkhazian internal passport. Abkhazia is recognised by only ~6 other UN member states).
I'm not sure in which way a US "passport card" differs from a plastic identity card. But it's notable that a few countries don't have either (UK doesn't... Russia and a few neighbouring countries, as mentioned before, instead have an "internal passport")
Of course, something in common with all the examples above, and with US citizens travelling to Mexico, is that you're travelling to neighbouring countries with friendly relations.
To add to that: in virtually every country in South America their citizens can visit the other countries in South America with only an ID card, no passport necessary.
> Of course, something in common with all the examples above, and with US citizens travelling to Mexico, is that you're travelling to neighbouring countries with friendly relations.
Militarily speaking, yes. But unlike the other examples, there is a huge economic difference between the US and Mexico, meaning migration flows exclusively one way. Illegal crossings are extremely common and the US has strong incentives to prevent them. It's hard to compare the US-Mexico border to any other border in the world.
> I'm not sure in which way a US "passport card" differs from a plastic identity card. But it's notable that a few countries don't have either (UK doesn't... Russia and a few neighbouring countries, as mentioned before, instead have an "internal passport")
US simply doesn't have any official identity card.
So they make up replacements for when it's convenient to actually have one.
I suppose the goal is to encourage innovation in the identity theft industry... after all it adds to the PIB doesn't it?
Circa 2018, I was travelling from Greece to Germany. For whatever reason, the Bundespolizie decided to check everyone’s passports. In particular everyone from Ireland was demanded to have a passport - their identity card wasn’t good enough.
EU citizens don't need a passport to travel across the EU (even outside the Schengen area, where you have to go through a border check), they just need an identity card.
(most) EU citizens could also travel to Turkey with their identity card.
EU citizens could travel to the UK with their identity card, for a few years after Brexit, as long as they got UK (pre-)settled status.
Russian citizens can travel to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan without their international passport. They instead have an "internal" passport (meant to be used like an identity card, and for travel to closed towns inside the country), which is recognised by those other countries.
The same applies in the other direction for citizens of nearby countries travelling to Russia (even in the case of an Abkhazian internal passport. Abkhazia is recognised by only ~6 other UN member states).
I'm not sure in which way a US "passport card" differs from a plastic identity card. But it's notable that a few countries don't have either (UK doesn't... Russia and a few neighbouring countries, as mentioned before, instead have an "internal passport")
Of course, something in common with all the examples above, and with US citizens travelling to Mexico, is that you're travelling to neighbouring countries with friendly relations.