Eurasia Press & News
MOSCOW
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the issues of bilateral interaction with the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev and congratulated him with the victorious finish in the race of the Kazakh racing stallion.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kazakhstan’s counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev, who are both present at the President’s Horse Race Cup 2009, discussed during the talks the issues of bilateral interaction, in particular, those of the Customs Union, some international matters as well as the schedule of future contacts.
“We have an opportunity to communicate quite a lot, to “verify watches”, especially in international issues,” – Russian President said, opening the meeting. “It is very important to us that our partners are in the know of our position,” – he added.
Dmitry Medvedev reminded that the sides had recently joined the Customs Union. We have gone a long way to it and have finished the process, which is very important to both our peoples, the Russian President is confident.
Nursultan Nazarbayev in his turn remarked, the Customs Union was question No.1 in today’s bilateral relations. “I am sure the Customs Union will begin functioning since January 1 next year. This is a very significant step toward integration. Other CIS states have also become interested in the Customs Union”, – the President of Kazakhstan emphasized.
Dmitry Medvedev suggested discussing further schedule of political contacts at the highest level. He noted, before the year-end both leaders would have a lot of opportunities to communicate. They could do it during the meeting in Kyrgyzstan at the CSTO summit and the CIS summit in Moldova. Nazarbayev reminded, he had invited the Russian President to Kazakhstan to watch the military drills of the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (KSOR) (the agreement on which was signed in Moscow by the CTSO leaders – ITAR-TASS). “We are also to meet in September in Orenburg to speak about regional and borderline cooperation,”- he added.
The president of Kazakhstan thanked Dmitry Medvedev for informing him of the Russian stand before the G8 summit in Italian L’Aquila. Nazarbayev was also closely and attentively watching the visit of the US President Barack Obama to Russia. In his opinion, there had been a real breakthrough in this sphere and the whole meeting with Barack Obama was brilliant.
At the beginning of the meeting Dmitry Medvedev congratulated the President of Kazakhstan with an impressive victory of the gray stallion nicknamed Grey Rio of the Dibek Equestrian Club, which had been racing for Kazakhstan in one of the rounds and had won the Criterium Prize. Nazarbayev thanked the Russian President for the invitation to this picturesque event and noted that rarely one has an opportunity to combine an official meeting with such a holiday.
