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 emphasized that while there is unanimous support for Azerbaijan's accession to the bank, it is impossible to guarantee a specific timeline for the process. He noted the inherent difficulty in predicting the duration of the process, citing Uzbekistan as an example. Although the final decision on Uzbekistan's accession was reached in 2025, the process itself began at the end of 2021, taking nearly three years to complete.
He further stated that in 2025, a delegation from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) visited Azerbaijan, where meetings were held with representatives from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance.
"I am confident that the potential plan for Azerbaijan's accession to the bank has been supported. Clearly, this process requires certain bureaucratic decisions within Azerbaijan, and we are patiently awaiting the relevant steps from the appropriate authorities," he stated.
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.