BOROVOYE (Kazakhstan), December 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed on Friday a joint action plan to deepen their countries' ties in 2009-2010.

The two leaders held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a three-day informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Borovoye, northern Kazakhstan though Sunday.

"Now that many international processes have been suspended and there is a global crisis of financial confidence between major partners and close nations, our relations should be even more full-blooded," Medvedev told Nazarbayev.

According to a spokesman for the Kazakh presidential administration, the plan is aimed at developing bilateral strategic partnerships. It includes 40 concrete measures covering all areas of bilateral cooperation, including politics, energy, space and defense.

Nazarbayev said Russia and Kazakhstan could establish a trilateral customs union with Belarus by next April.

"As part of the project to establish a customs union of the three states - Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus - 20 documents have already been initialed, and the remaining 12 will be initialed by March, so that by April we could establish such a union," the Kazakh leader said.