Medvedev and Nazarbayev meet at horse race

Moscow, July 18 (Itar-Tass) --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.

-0-kud