Baku, July 13, AZERTAC

President Ilham Aliyev completed his two day official visit to Pakistan during which he held meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, where they discussed various areas of mutual interest and bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Azerbaijan. According to foreign ministry both leaders reaffirmed the strategic partnership between their countries, emphasizing their confidence in close security and defense cooperation. Thus it is the start of a new strategic road map for further strengthening of bilateral relations.

Moreover, they appreciated the trilateral summit involving Pakistan, Türkiye and Azerbaijan as a promising start to a new era of collaboration. This summit is seen as a vital step towards fostering stronger regional alliances and cooperation.

Welcoming the President of Azerbaijan, Asif Ali Zardari termed bilateral relations of both countries as excellent relations and have a great scope of further improving ties in various areas of mutual interest. He underlined the need for more regular engagements between the people and businessmen of Pakistan and Azerbaijan to cement bilateral ties.

The President of Pakistan highlighted the importance of Gwadar port, saying that Central Asian Countries and Azerbaijan can benefit from it for promoting regional trade, connectivity and tourism, besides bringing shared economic prosperity to the region.

Speaking on the occasion, President Ilham Aliyev said the two countries needed to promote business-to-business relations for enhancing economic relations. He added that Pakistan and Azerbaijan can also explore the possibility of working together in the renewable energy sector.

The visit concluded on a positive note, reflecting strengthened ties and shared aspirations for enhanced cooperation across multiple sectors between Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

It seems that a new strategic partnership has been further consolidated between Pakistan and Azerbaijan and the recently held visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has opened a window of opportunities for both the countries which have strategic relations.

Moreover, rapidly changing socio-economic, geopolitical and geostrategic conflicting realities and compulsions in South Caucasus, Black Sea, Red Sea and Middle East have reinvigorated both sides to foster mutual bilateral relations. According to reliable diplomatic sources, mutual consensus has been further enhanced on North-South Corridor, greater regional connectivity, socio-economic integration, public-private cooperation, investment, pharmaceutical, textiles, food & energy security and of course military cooperation between two sides.

In this regard, signing of several agreements and MoUs during the visit vividly reflected the robust cooperation and leadership-level dialogue between the two countries.

Pakistan and Azerbaijan agreed to enhance the bilateral investment level of up to US$2 billion in areas of mutual beneficial projects. In a joint press stakeout along with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev after witnessing the signing of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in diverse areas between the two countries, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said “We have discussed an initial figure of $US2bn of investment in areas of mutual beneficial projects”.

Even possibilities of further enhancing of bilateral trade through joint cooperation and joint investments were also thoroughly discussed. The bilateral investment volume of less than $100 million does not reflect the strength of our brotherhood and friendship in the field of joint investment in areas which are mutually beneficial.

PM Shehbaz termed holding of the climate summit COP29 in Baku would be a significant international event for all developing countries, including Pakistan. He hoped that COP29 would deliver on the climate change-related issues of developing countries like Pakistan.

The diplomatic circles in the capital termed President Aliyev support to Pakistan’s just cause on Kashmir as a true sign of brotherhood and political understanding between two sides. Moreover, Ilham’s labeling people-to-people connection as a big asset is a sign of support for each other on every international issue.

Before his visit the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Samir Sharifov arrived in Pakistan and held meetings with different ministers including Energy (Power and Petroleum) ministers and called on Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan which clearly demonstrated the government of Pakistan dedication to forging robust economic relations with other nations.

Undoubtedly, Pakistan attaches great importance to its relationship with Azerbaijan. Both sides should jointly work to advance their cooperation in various sectors including tourism, transport, energy security, and defence, though this requires additional efforts.

The two countries are taking measures to increase bilateral investment, especially in the energy sector. The two countries will also enhance parliamentary exchanges, strengthen cultural cooperation and promote people-to-people contacts including between students, academia, businessmen and tourists.

It is pertinent to mention that at the SCO summit, Sharif proposed the establishment of tripartite institutional mechanisms in economic and investment areas to further strengthen cooperation among the three nations.

Azerbaijan was particularly interested in investing in the mineral, oil and gas sectors. It was focusing on the oil and gas exploration sector and that the country was keen to expand investments in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector as well.

It is predicted that the recently held visit of Azerbaijan Ilham will further boost bilateral ties between the countries and areas of increasing textile exports and promoting the IT sector between the two countries will also be discussed. Simply, it would be a big investment push of the government of Pakistan.

In summary, Pakistan has special historic, cultural, social, political and diplomatic relationships with Azerbaijan which may not be confined only to bilateral diplomatic domains. For centuries, the people of both countries have been visiting, interacting and carrying caravans of human values, ethnic diversity, education, commerce and above all mutual respect and trust.

Moreover, finalization, operationalization and channelization of an early conclusion of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and Bilateral Transit Trade Agreement (BTTA) is the need of the hour which would further streamline and systemize the bilateral relations between two countries.

There are vast opportunities in the diverse field of economy, investment, joint ventures, special economic free zones, CPEC, oil & gas energy cooperation, agriculture cooperation (duties on rice has been removed by Azerbaijan government and therefore exports of rice from Pakistan is constantly on the rise), infrastructure development especially in the newly liberated areas of Karabakh, dairy cooperation, hybrid seeds, climate change cooperation especially after the COP29, hydro power energy generation, health, vacancies, science & technology, space sciences, education, tourism, formation of sustainable supply chains, software, ICT, fertilizer, textiles, pharmaceutical, sugar, surgical plants, SMEs, micro-financing, women empowerment and entrepreneurship, insurance companies and last but not least, military cooperation/production between two strategic partners.

The ease of travel between the two countries, institutionalization of easy visa policy, mutual cooperation in civil aviation and last but not least business and people-to-people cooperation would bring the desired goals of greater socio-economic cooperation, banking & finance integration, trans-regional connectivity, energy & food cooperation and above all metals & mining and infrastructure development between two sides.

There is huge scope for Pakistan private sector and companies to make investments in Azerbaijan economy including, infrastructure development, smart living, smart cities, green energies, digitalization, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, big data, community development, SMEs, Micro-Financing, hand-crafts, marble, cement, fertilizer, pharmaceutical, horticulture, fishing, public health, vaccines, disaster management, money markets and last but not least, aviation, tourism, banking, Islamic banking, education(with dual degrees), modern farming, dairy, renewables etc. Thus Pakistani businessmen and investors must avail this opportunity and make investments in Azerbaijan.

Close liaison between tourist operating agencies, tour operators, ministries of culture, tourism, history, civil aviation of both sides would be pivotal to further enhance bilateral tourism cooperation in which the corporate sector of Karachi, Lahore, medical colleges/doctors, film industry and sport organizations would play an important role in the future. New trends like the Nomad visa should also be promoted to seek more and more tourists from both sides. Furthermore, close cooperation of media, film, social media, education, culture and people-to-people contacts would also be a great befitting proposition for both countries and the private sector.

Dr Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan

President, Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge

Executive Director, The Center for South Asia & International Studies (CSAIS)

Regional Expert, Azerbaijan, China, CPEC & BRI