OREANDA-NEWS. April 8, 2009. The telephone conversations followed on from the exchange of views on ways to address the global financial crisis that took place during Mr Medvedev’s meeting with the CIS finance ministers on March 31, on the eve of the G20 summit in London.

In his conversations with the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Mr Medvedev informed them of the G20 summit’s main decisions and discussed steps to minimise the crisis’ impact on individual countries and on the CIS as a whole, making use of the possibilities opened up by the decisions made at the G20 summit.

Mr Medvedev also exchanged views with his colleagues on current bilateral issues, including the state of progress of joint trade and economic projects and the prospects for cooperation on specific international issues. Plans for upcoming contacts were also discussed, including events timed to coincide with multilateral meetings (the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, the World Grain Forum, the next session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation’s Collective Security Council, the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of State, and the Russian President’s Cup horse race), in which the CIS partners will take part at various levels.