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President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev: Mr Medvedev, I want to thank you very much for finding the time to come to Kazakhstan once again straight after giving your Address to the Federal Assembly yesterday. I know what an important event this is, and what goes into it too, the preparations and the delivery.

We all remember the speech you gave in the Kazakh language here on July 5. That truly was a unique occasion, addressing such a large public too. Some would have said just a word or two, ‘hello’, say, but giving an entire speech in generally decent Kazakh really was a mark of respect on your part.

As far as our relations go, I think we have no problems. I am looking forward to the meeting in Moscow on December 9, 2010.

We spoke about the fact that next year we will celebrate the CIS’ 20^th anniversary. You have proposed holding the celebrations in Moscow, and I have no objection to this.

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: We will reach an agreement.

Mr Nazarbayev, I simply want to express my respect and thanks to you for getting this summit organized. I know that this took a lot of selfless effort and it was not always easy finding compromises and getting everything agreed. This is indeed a big event for the whole Eurasian region. It was not a good thing that there had not been an OSCE summit for so long. 

Security issues on our continent are not being resolved in the best fashion, as we can see from the rather serious conflicts that have taken place over the last decade. The fact that you managed to get this summit organised and hold it in Asia for the first time, here in Kazakhstan, is therefore recognition of your state-building achievements and also recognition of the OSCE’s potential.

We all criticised the OSCE today, I too in my speech, because we know we have the chance to make it stronger. But I think that holding this summit is a very important event, and so I want to thank you once more for the initiative and political will you have shown throughout this work. I think this is important for all countries, for Kazakhstan too, of course, as a young and fast-growing country.

Our bilateral relations need no comment. They are very good. We have our traditional agenda to work on. I think there is not even really any need to go into these issues right now, as we will meet again in Moscow very soon. 

We will work on the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space. Almost all of the documents are ready now. I spoke with the [EurAsEC] Secretary General about this just before. I think that everything will work out. This is an important event in our countries’ lives, in the life of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. We will therefore continue to take this project forward. Thank you very much for the summit’s excellent organisation. 

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