MINSK, May 28. /TASS/. The targeted efforts of external forces against the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) serve as an argument in favor of CIS integration, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday during a meeting with the heads of delegations to the session of the CIS Heads of Government Council.
"One of the arguments in favor of integration is the targeted work carried out by external forces against the Commonwealth. <…> Firstly, we are becoming stronger, and therefore, we are able to hinder their plans for establishing a unipolar world. Secondly, our countries have colossal potential, which causes concern among our competitors. And thirdly, this potential can be multiplied if we continue deepening our ties and our integration," the Belarus Segodnya newspaper quotes Lukashenko as saying.
He also noted that all CIS states should be involved in the resolution of common regional issues. "I am confident that with different integration formats, all states of the Commonwealth must be involved in the resolution of common regional problems," the BelTA news agency quotes Lukashenko as saying.
Besides, Belarusian President said that the CIS managed to confirm its viability in difficult times..
"Today we can say with full confidence that the project called the CIS has been successful and confirms its viability once again in these difficult times," Lukashenko noticed at a meeting.
Lukashenko said the creation of the CIS was an absolutely natural, historically correct and necessary act.
"We have colossal experience of several generations and centuries-old traditions of friendship and neighborliness to rely on. We have retained the strength of the spiritual unity of Soviet peoples. We share the gift inherited from our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who won the bloodiest war of last century," he said.
Lukashenko stressed that the development of ties within the CIS was one of the unshakable priorities of Belarusian foreign policy.
"We identified the most crucial tasks of the Commonwealth in the policy documents of the Belarusian presidency. Also, we are advancing them in the Eurasian Economic Union. Many of them have already been implemented within the framework of the Russia-Belarus Union State. It is obvious that the main attention of the CIS governments and the CIS working bodies should be focused on developing our common economic space," Lukashenko added.