ALMATY, Kazakhstan, December 18. I hope that
Azerbaijan's accession process to the Eurasian Development Bank
(EDB) will begin in 2026, Chairman of the EDB Management Board
Nikolai Podguzov told Trend on the sidelines of a press conference
on the results of 2025 in Almaty, Trend reports.
Podguzov noted that it is impossible to guarantee the timing,
despite the fact that there is full support for Azerbaijan's
accession to the bank. According to him, it is difficult to predict
how long this process will take. He cited Uzbekistan as an example:
although the final decision was made in 2025, the process itself
began at the end of 2021 and actually took about three years.
He also reported that in 2025, an EDB delegation visited
Azerbaijan, during which meetings were held with representatives of
the ministries of economy and finance.
“I believe that the potential plan for Azerbaijan's accession to
the bank was supported. Obviously, this requires certain
bureaucratic decisions within Azerbaijan, and we are patiently
awaiting them from the relevant structures,” he said.
The EDB is a multilateral development bank designed to promote
economic growth in member states, expand trade and economic ties
between them, and develop integration processes in the Eurasian
space through investment activities. The EDB has seven member
countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
