MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. One of Russia’s foreign policy priorities is to strengthen strategic partnership and alliance with the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in various formats, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.

"Our priorities include strengthening strategic partnership and alliance with neighboring countries, CIS countries in a variety of formats," the foreign minister emphasized.

The top diplomat noted that today integration development continues within the Union State of Russia and Belarus. "The common defense space, which is being formed within the framework of the agreement on security guarantees, that entered into force this March, is a great help here," he concluded.

Lavrov also recalled that during a joint board meeting of Russian and Belarusian foreign ministries held in Moscow in late November, agreements were reached to further strengthen foreign policy coordination and concrete steps in this direction were outlined.

"Multifaceted ties within the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS are advancing, the new CIS+ format, launched at the October CIS summit in Dushanbe, is promising," the foreign minister added. Moreover, in his words, ties "with our Central Asian friends" are developing fruitfully.

The top diplomat recalled that in November, during the state visit of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Russia, the declaration on elevating Russian-Kazakh relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance was signed, and the state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kyrgyzstan at the end of November resulted in a decision to deepen Russian-Kyrgyz relations of alliance and strategic partnership.