Union with Russia was a historic choice of Belarus and China a foreign policy priority, Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko said in his annual address to the parliament and the nation in Minsk on Tuesday.

"The advantages of union with Russia are undoubted," Lukashenko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying, "this is our historic choice."

Lukashenko said joint efforts of the two countries "are concentrated on the quest of the optimum model of relations in the framework of the Union State."

"It is characteristic that we have passed on from dealing exclusively with organizational and legal matters to specific work in the areas of social security, education, the health services, the tax policy and free travel," he said.

"China, which shares and supports many of our political steps, is a key priority of Belarussian foreign policy," Lukashenko said.

Belarus favors full-scale cooperation with the Untied States and the European Union, he said. And Belarus is for preserving the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and for continuing cooperation in the framework of that organization.

"We will continue cooperation in the framework of the CIS," Lukashenko said. "We have common interests, so any form of integration is useful. We must develop more actively in the framework of the CIS the transit component, social and humanitarian cooperation."

"At the same time there's no denying that the Commonwealth is in need of a reform, mainly in order to enhance the effectiveness of the decisions taken and responsibility of each state for fulfilling the obligations assumed," the president said.

Source: Xinhua