00:00In this edition of Eurasia Talks and in a rare interview, we're joined by Edil Beyselov,
00:08the Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan. Your Excellency, thank you so much for joining us
00:14today on Euronews. What is your assessment of the recent parliamentary elections and
00:20the objective to strengthen parliamentary democracy in your country?
00:24Well, we were very pleased with the assessment of many international monitoring groups that
00:33have come to observe the elections and they all celebrated that it was free and fair elections,
00:38where the people of Kyrgyzstan had the opportunity to elect their representatives. And of course,
00:44these elections were the first step. We are moving away from proportional party representation to
00:52the constituencies, 30 constituencies where they elect three representatives, including at least
01:00of mixed gender. So we are guaranteed and actually I can report to you with pride that we will have
01:0530 women in our 90-seat parliament. And yes, we are looking forward to working together with this
01:15parliament, taking forward our country. What would you say was the biggest thing you learned from these
01:20elections, taking it away and implementing moving forwards? Of course, we are very young population.
01:27We have two thirds of our country younger than 32. And so we had many young voters. It was completely
01:35new picture because, you know, next year we will be celebrating as many of our brotherly, neighbourly
01:41countries, 35 years of our independence. And so I think it is the time that we are closing the chapter of
01:48being a post-Soviet transition countries. Each of us, including Kyrgyzstan, we are finding our own
01:55path. And so there is a new generation. We have now a new generation of voters. They've never lived in
02:03Soviet Union. They never lived in the 90s. They didn't see this transition. And so it is actually a very
02:09good momentum of hope and optimism. And we do know with confidence that tomorrow is better than today.
02:17In this rapidly evolving geopolitical world, how are you positioning your economy and your security
02:24regarding your neighbours? You know, and obviously with that, you know, how is the war in the region
02:28affecting that? In March 2025, leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan announced to the world
02:37final border agreements between all the three countries. And now in Central Asia, all our internal and
02:44external borders have been agreed and delineated, demarcated. And our national leaders, they enjoy
02:54very close personal relations, meeting almost every month, formally, informally. And the new trust and
03:02bonding between the national leaders, it is, of course, all of our nations are growing together. And
03:10and we have declared the ideal of building a region of shared prosperity. We are worried about the
03:19conflicts near and far, but we are focused on our own pragmatic goals of building prosperous countries.
03:29and we are a national gateway. Sure. We are building on the legacy of the historic Silk Road. Yeah.
03:37And in Kyrgyzstan, we will be completing the new transcontinental railroad. I want to ask you about
03:44the European Union and any message that you have for the European Union as the EU sanctions your banks
03:51over alleged Russian links. What would you say to them? Well, we are in constant dialogue with our
03:57European Union colleagues and with individual European countries. Obviously, we are worried that there is
04:04a misunderstanding. And, you know, Russian Federation is our top partner, has been in trade, in our relations.
04:14We have hundreds of thousands of labor migrants. Obviously, there will be, you know, there will be remittances.
04:22Sure. But I've been in Brussels and I have asked our European colleagues to provide
04:30for the mechanism where, for example, dual use goods that they tell us, that European businesses notify us,
04:38whereas any of the Kyrgyz entities are buying any of those dual use. And, of course, they don't want
04:47to bother. And quite a lot of times, we are, of course, frustrated with some of the
04:55sanctions that I think that we believe are, you know, they just want to, you know, and they find
05:03really the weakest links. We are committed to working with them, explaining and pursuing our
05:12own pragmatic interests of national development. And we are focused on our own internal affairs.
05:20Now, Central Asia is a region of peace now. You know, the C5 Summit, Central Asian Summit in Samarkand,
05:28was a sight to behold when we saw, you know, your president, the five leaders sat together. What is
05:34the symbolism of that? All of our national leaders, they're enjoying very close personal relations of
05:43friendship, of brotherhood between all of our nations, down to the streets, down to children,
05:52down. It's communicated throughout social media. And therefore, of course, we have declared to the
06:01world that we will be building a regional joint market with open borders, a region of shared prosperity.
06:10And that's the vision that we want to communicate to the world. What is your key priority then for the
06:16success of that regional cooperation? Obviously, we need, you know, we are looking at Afghanistan. We are
06:25still worried that Afghanistan, we are landlocked or land leaked region. So we are interested in access to
06:35the world transport links. So in Islamabad and the port of Karachi is very important for us, the route,
06:44the closest seaport to Kyrgyzstan. You know, we are very much excited about the new route named after
06:56President Trump. You know, our Azerbaijani colleagues call it Zangezur Corridor that will open up Central
07:04Asia to the Middle East, to Turkey, to Europe. And there are many good news actually coming from Central
07:12Asia. Countries like Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, many other smaller, middle powers, lots of responsible actors of
07:19the international scene. We must be focused on strengthening and revitalizing the United Nations.
07:28And our country is seeking a seat in the United Nations Security Council. And I'm happy to report that
07:34all of our neighbors, all of our international partners, you know, Central Asian countries supporting
07:41our bid. Elections are next June. So we are responsible actors that will play our role in
07:50keeping the United Nations alive. Adil Baisalov, thank you so much for joining us on Eurasia Talks on
07:56Euronews. Thank you. Thank you.
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