policies on immigration, signing an executive order to end the separation of migrant children from their parents. there'd been an outcry from both sides of the political aisle and human rights groups. he's still saying he wants to toughen american immigration laws and may try to force mexico to tighten its border. there's widespread condemnation of new laws in hungary, that penalise organisations helping migrants. the helsinki rights group has accused hungary of failing in its duty of protection. european leaders have an emergency meeting this weekend on the migrant crisis. britain's prime minister has seen off a rebellion by conservative mps demanding a bigger say over brexit. the commons voted by a majority of 16 against the idea that mps should have the power to stop the uk leaving the eu, if no agreement has been reached. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to astana, kazakhstan.

i am stephen sackur. the shiny new capital city tells it plenty about kazakhstan‘s oil wealth and its big ambition to be central asia's regional powerhouse. but all of this cannot mask a nagging question — what happens in this country when the long—serving president, nursultan naza bayev, finally leaves power? my guest today is the chairman of the kazakh senate and the de facto number two to the president, kassym—jomart tokayev. is kazakhstan tiring of 1—party rule? kassym—jomart tokayev, welcome to hardtalk.

you have spoken about the subtle balance in this country between stability and democracy. do you think kazakhstan has the balance right? i am sure that kazakhstan has reached the right balance between stability and democracy. stability is a must for us. democracy is a must for us equally. at the same time, stability should not be guaranteed at the price of democracy. the reason i was saying that there is a subtle balance between both stability and democracy, we must be stable but at the same time we must be democratic.

i see the stability. that is obvious because you have had the same leader for 27 years. since independence and the collapse of the soviet union. democracy, i am less certain about because when you look at the political culture and the way the politics works in kazakhstan today, it seems, frankly, that you have barely evolved from the soviet days. kazakhstan is evolving. i think there is no ground to make a comparison between the soviet style democracy and the contemporary kazakhstan. kazakhstan has evolved dramatically and tremendously. you have 1—party rule, don't you? no. we have three parties. in the majlis. here in the senate we have no political factions... however the two parties in the lower house that are not the ruling party, they basically supports nazabayev and are loyal to the regime. you do not have any genuine opposition because, frankly, the biggest opposition party, the democratic choice party,

has been banned. it is illegal. we have no such party, democratic choice. if we speak about the rule of law, we need to acknowledge that there is no existence of this party since the general prosecutor proclaimed that this party has been prohibited in carrying out activities in kazakhstan. that is exactly my point. you have banned the only real opposition voice in the country. the leader of that party is living in exile, having been imprisoned, or convicted in absentia. as a matter of fact we do not have such a party because what is the party? the party means that it needs to be registered by the ministry ofjustice. there was no registration,

there was no procedure of registration by the ministry ofjustice. and you do not feel when you tell me that that that sounds rather evocative of the times of the soviet union? i would not say so because i used to live in the soviet union and i remember. i remember a time when there was dominance of the communist party. now we have a total different situation in kazakhstan. we are free to talk about anything. we'll talk about freedom in a minute but the political culture. you are an experienced diplomat, ten years as foreign minister and you have travelled around the world you know in which the way democratic systems work and how they work. does it think you credible that when we learned that in the last election, president naza bayev won 97.7% of the vote. with all of your international

experience, do you think that sounds credible? it sounds credible. perhaps for you, particularly in the uk, it sounds not that credible but for us it sounds quite credible because president nazarbayev is a special case. he is a founder of kazakhstan as an independent country. we had been dreaming about independence for so many years and for us it was absolutely necessary to make sure that we will survive as an independent country. so i am saying that is why president nazarbayev is a special case. you told me at the start of this interview that we in kazakhstan must evolve and it is that lack of evolution that i am picking away at, because in the course of my time in this country i met, for example, with an opposition politician who has found it

impossible to operate in this country. vladimir kozlov. his party was essentially disbanded and he ended up serving overfour years in prison including a long time in solitary confinement. that, to me, suggest that mr nazarbayev has stayed in power partly by ensuring that critical voices are silenced. i do not agree with you. as far as this party is concerned, it has been violating the law of kazakhstan. according to the constitution of kazakhstan, nobody has the right to do so. the reason this party has been prohibited and the leader has been accused of a felony.

so i think... everything has been done quite properly according to the constitution and the laws of kazakhstan. i know you care about the international perceptions of kazakhstan. when amnesty international names a series of prisoners of conscience of this country, political prisoners, when it says that people are imprisoned for expressing criticism of the regime online, that there is no free expression, that certain newspapers and online news organisations have been closed down, this creates a very poor impression of your political culture to the outside world. perhaps at the same time we do not agree. we do not agree with

thosejudgements made by amnesty international and other organisations. we believe it is a matter of discussion. we are going to go ahead with our arguments and our discussions with these organisations. why, when a small number of people on may ten decided to protest about the imprisonment of some political dissidents, why did the government sent paramilitary police units to arrest them? i have seen the video, they carry them bodily into police vans and detain them. why would you do that? the same things happen abroad including in western countries. everybody is doing their own job. it is not about democracy or the violation of democracy in kazakhstan. if it is going against the law or whenever it goes against the law, violates the existing laws, of course the police will be doing theirjob. but there were no injuries, there were no serious incidents. during those demonstrations... the result is that there is no political space for a vigorous

discussion of kazakhstan‘s political future. that is the reality. we have a lot of ngos. they are free to join any ngos. and i am active in pushing the government to be more open to the ngos. it is interesting. you are pushing for them to be more open. are not against. we are not pushing against. we are pushing the government to be more open to the civil society. to be more positive to the ngos and those who go out to the states to demonstrate against the government. out to the streets. they should have an opportunity

to join ngos so they can speak out about their own problems. so our task, as i understand, is to provide some opportunity, or more opportunity to the ngos to be in civil society. it is a process, not a final stage. but i think we are on the right track. you said that president nazarbayev is a special case because he is, as many people say, the father of the nation. you said that president nazarbayev is a special case because he is, as many people say, the father of the nation. is that actually a source of vulnerability as well as strength for kazakhstan? you need to figure out what to do when president nazarbayev is no longer in power. there is no sense here of what will happen in that succession. is not a matter of vulnerability.

it is a matter of stability. a matter of confidence. do you know what will happen when the succession time comes? firstly, ishould mention that the president of kazakhstan, president nazarbayev was elected until 2020. whether he is elected once again is up to him. if my mathematics is correct, he will be 80 by then. the constitution says... the malaysian prime minister became the chief of the governance at 92. that is an interesting comment because i noticed the constitution says that because he is the founder of the nation he can run as many times as he want. i don't believe that president nazarbayev will go to the presidential election in 2020. i don't believe that because he is a wise man.

absolutely reasonable and i think that in 2020 we shall have presidential elections so other candidates can accept. you are the de facto number two in this country. i have never heard you nor any other official state it as clearly as that before. does that suggest... it is my personal opinion but i think that in 2020... of course it is up to president nazarbayev whether he will go for the election. but i need to say openly that i don't believe it. but i do believe he will go. as his de facto number two right now, and one of the most experienced politicians in kazakhstan. are you throwing your hat into the ring? i would say so because it depends. it depends. what i do want to say is that even if president nazarbayev does not

become the president of this country, he will be exercising tremendous influence over the politics. these are external politics and internal politics. however, we still have time and it is very much important that kazakhstan will be as stable as it is now. one of the other problems that critics of the government here see with the longevity of the current regime and president nazarbayev himself is that they see it as one of the factors behind the growth of corruption in this country. the same people in power for so long the same friends, cronies and associates. it has led to the development of a systematic corruption in this country. people complain about corruption but at the same time, kazakhstan is an example of how to fight corruption. so many people, approximately 400 officials, have been put

in prisons for corruption. name one of the countries in the world, particularly in the post—soviet period, in the post—soviet area. i take your point. even the very senior economy minister, a young star in the government, was locked up for corruption but one of the opponents of the regime put it to me in almaty, it is not a question of individuals, it is the system — the system is rotten. i don't agree with him because of course, everybody is free to criticise the system but i don't believe that he is right. the system is good. we have a very good legal framework for fighting against corruption. one feature of the kazakh economy is that a small number

of extraordinarily wealthy individuals seem to dominate. there is one private company, eurasia resources, which it is said controls 4% of the country's assets. it looks to outsiders like an oligarchical system. is that healthy and sustainable for the kazakh economy? it was quite necessary for our economy in the very beginning of sovereignty. you need to remember that the old economy was state—owned, so the company you mentioned about was one of the first to come to our market, to privatise, some major enterprises. and we are grateful to them. to make this step because we had no traditions of private economy. now people argue that this company

is detrimental to our economy. they bring some problems. the answer to your question is to develop smes here. it is one of the goals of the government formulated by president nazarbayev. we don't have oligarchs. what does oligarch mean? that he is a rich man and he wants to be near the government, the president, in order to exercise influence? that is precisely what you do have. making decisions, instead of the government, or instead of the president. we have no such persons here. really? yes. what about the riches we know have been amassed by people who are very close friends of the president,

some of whom are in the family of the president? it's not true. there are speculations, a lot of speculations, believe me. yes, they are quite rich. they are capable people. they are very much educated. some have been educated abroad, including the uk, but at the same time, to make judgements like the family which runs the whole country, it is not true. privatisation is going into a new phase, creating an international stock exchange under british common law and you are inviting international investors in. they have to have confidence that the system here is clean, that outside investors are going to be given full access to an independentjudiciary. can you give those guarantees? we can give those guarantees. first of all, there is a special amendment to the constitution

creating the international financial centre in astana. it is a precedent in kazakhstan and far beyond, and it's also one of the major answers to the corruption, as you said, to those negative things that unfortunately do happen here from time to time, and this is a realfinancial international centre and the barristers and judges also came here to have a look, to help us run the financial centre. i think it is one of the major examples how we want to handle this issue. the other, it seems to me, key pillar of your economic strategy over the next few years is trying to exploit your geographical position, in particular your proximity to the massive growth of the chinese economy.

it seems to me this is potentially dangerous for kazakhstan. it could be a one—way relationship. china has an awful lot to gain. what does kazakhstan had to gain? without kazakhstan, the concept of one belt 0ne road will not be feasible. our aim is to get $5 billion from this concept up to 2020. it is both beneficial for china and for kazakhstan. do you think you persuaded the kazakh people a close economic relationship with china is in the country's interest? i remember the 2016 protests when land reform measures were proposed which would allow chinese farmers and agricultural companies to come in

and lease farmland in kazakhstan and the kazakh people, they did not like it one bit. there was a huge confusion and misunderstanding so we had to explain to the people that somebody is making wrong judgements on the plans of the government, as was the parliament. at the same time, just a month ago, we passed a new law here saying that there will be no territorial or land concessions to any country, and first of all to china. we have absolutely been clear and open explaining our plans to the chinese government, saying that as far as land is concerned, it's a sacred thing for us. just a quick thought before we finish, on one of the other key strategic neighbour you have — that is russia. vladimir putin said this after the ukraine conflict, the annexation of crimea,

the conflict in east ukraine, he said this of kazakhstan in 2014. " kazakhstan is part of the larger russian world." do you in kazakhstan agree with that notion? i think that, yes, kazakhstan, as a matter of fact is a russian—speaking country. we have two languages here, kazakh and russian — perhaps you noticed. i noticed that your government is pushing the kazakh language and pushing the... the alphabet. the script from cyrillic to the latin script, which moscow regards perhaps as a sign that you are moving away. speaking about the russian world, we don't agree, because here, we have our own world, which is kazakh, and the presence of the russian language, of course,

is quite visible, and at the same time, we are facilitating and promoting english in kazakhstan. so the more languages our younger generation know, the better for kazakhstan. let me end by doing what you and kazakhs do a lot, which is thinking ahead. the president and the government issued a plan taking the country all the way through to 2050, so let's talk about 2050. in 2050, do you think kazakhstan will be much more integrated with the chinese economy than the russian economy? i think that, in 2050, kazakhstan will be one of the major players, not only in central asia but beyond, and my hope is that the younger generation, our young people are so bright, so smart, tremendously so, and i think we will be living in a very good country. and a final thought about 2050.

in 2050, will kazakhstan be a multi—party, truly democratic country, or will it still be a one—party system, as it pretty much is today? whatever you criticise kazakhstan as a lack of democracy, i still don't agree with you, i'm sorry. you are entitled not to agree with me, but just to continue the point about 2050, will the political system look very different? i think in 2050, the whole world will be changed. the whole world will be looking different. so the current perceptions and assessments of democracy as well as political systems also will be changed. kassym—jomart tokayev, i thank you very much

for being with us. thank you very much, i appreciate it. good morning. it is the summer solstice today, but i just want to cast your mind back to this time last year when we saw a high of 35 degrees. it really was a scorcher on the 21st ofjune, 2017. however, for us, things will turn notably fresher today as we have a north—western flow driving that humidity away to the near continent. high pressure is building, but the wind swinging around that high, coming through the north—west. that is going to make it feel noticeably fresher out there. close to 19 hours of daylight.

get out and enjoy it if you can. a scattering of showers and some gusty winds, gusting in excess of a0 miles an hour for the northern isles. a little bit of cloud developing. generally speaking, it is a quiet day. 1a to 18 degrees quite widely. might see 21 in the south—east corner if we are lucky. as we move out of thursday, we keep those clear skies with us and temperatures will fall away perhaps into single figures to start our day on friday. lowerfigures in more rural spots, so again a comfortable night for sleeping, a chilly start to friday morning. but there will be plenty of dry weather and an area of high pressure is just starting to nudge a little bit further eastwards, which means we lose that north—westerly flow, with the exception perhaps along that east coast. further west we see the best of the sunshine, lighter winds, and temperatures will start to respond — highs of 22 degrees.

what is in store for the weekend? not much change, in fact. high pressure is still set with us. we will hardly have a breath of wind on saturday. maybe the chance of a few showers just brushing the extreme north of scotland and a little more cloudy but generally speaking, maybe some hazy looking skies, but a pleasant feel — 16 to 2a, 75 fahrenheit. warmer still on sunday. we still have those winds, the high pressure centred right across the uk. very little in the way of rain for the gardens. if you are a gardener or grower out there, that will be a little frustrating, but plenty of warm summer sunshine to look forward to. if you have outdoor plans on sunday, you will not be disappointed. 18—25 the overall high. guess what? there is more of the same to come right throughout the next week. warming up with temperatures likely to peak in the high 20s. enjoy. hello, this is the briefing — i'm samantha simmonds. our top stories: after the outcry, the climbdown.

president trump ends his policy of separating migrant children from their parents but insists border policy will remain just as tough. migration is also a big issue in europe — on sunday, there'll be an emergency eu meeting dealing with the crisis. we have a special report from niger, where security forces are under intense training to deal with the threat from militants. hello — i'm lucy hockings at the world cup in moscow. it's day seven of the competition and hosts, russia, are through to the last 16. as ronaldo keeps portugal's hopes alive — four goals so far — we look forward to the crucial games coming up over the next few hours.