Tazeen Akhtar / Islamabad
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the emerging economic power in the South Caucasus where East and West meet and that provides a gateway to Europe, is visiting Pakistan. He is great friend of Pakistan who inherits warms feelings and keenness of building brotherhood from his father, the National Leader , Heydar Aliyev who was the real constructor of bilateral relations.
Historically speaking, both countries were connected with each other centuries ago. Multani traders used to travel to Baku. Multan Sarai in old city of Baku is the memorial of their trade visits to this beautiful city of winds. Qazilbash community in Pakistan migrated from Azerbaijan and made the lands their home that later became Pakistan. Mythically speaking, Koh e Qaaf is known by all Pakistanis who are in their 50s and who read or heard the stories of fairies in their childhood. The land of Koh e Qaaf is Azerbaijan.
The relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan have improved rapidly during last few years with the high level bilateral visits and mutual interactions of the leaders at different international foras ,especially the latest SCO at Astana in the beginning of current month.
President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Pakistan is the culmination of these contacts. Both countries enjoy close , cordial and confident cooperation in almost all spheres including trade, energy and defense. Therefore the visit of President is opening a new chapter in bilateral cooperation.
Both countries are engaged in another format that has Turkiye on the board as well. It is trilateral forum Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan that held its summit at the sidelines of SCO only a few days ago in Astana Kazakhstan.
Shehbaz Sharif proposed the establishment of tripartite institutional mechanisms in economic and investment areas to further strengthen cooperation among the three nations. Pak Azerbaijan relations are taking the same shape as are Pak Turkiye, two states one nation.
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov visited Islamabad on 29-30 May 2024. Both countries pledged to further improve bilateral cooperation in the areas of economy, trade, energy, connectivity, and people-to-people contacts.
President Ilham earlier visited Pakistan in April 2017 during the government of Nawaz Sharif , the elder brother of incumbent PM Shehbaz. It was 13th Economic Cooperation Organization Summit. The heads of all member states participated in the Summit held in Islamabad.
PM Shehbaz was warmly welcomed by President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on 14-15 June this year where both leaders discussed matters related to PTA , Enhancing Cooperation in Energy, Banking, IT, Financial Services.
In the deep history, the National Leader of Azerbaijan , Late Heydar Aliyev visited Pakistan in April 1996. He signed 9 bilateral documents after his meeting with the then Prime Minister , the late Benazir Bhutto. The agreements on friendship and cooperation, trade, tax, health, tourism were signed.
Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik has shared that Azerbaijan is considering an investment of $ 2 to 3 Billion in Pakistan. Though his statement is too early to be made as it can affect the visit. Certainly if the minister says this now that “Azerbaijan is considering”, definitely it means , this will not be confirmed in the visit.
Ministers should always be careful on their statements at such occasions. Politics is different than international relations. The minister seems to be more desperate for FDI than calculated with proper homework.
Foreign Office is hopeful that the visit will be helpful in enhancing already growing cooperation. Minister Malik told a private news channel that Azerbaijan was particularly interested in investing in the mineral, oil and gas sectors.
Here it is pertinent to recall that Azerbaijan helped Pakistan in meeting her energy requirements by exporting huge cache of Fuel Gas few years ago. Azerbaijan’s Petroleum Company SOCAR and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) signed an agreement on 24 July 2023 in Islamabad. It was witnessed by the then Prime Minister , again Shehbaz.
Azerbaijan is rich in petroleum and fuel gas resources. At present , when Russian energy is banned to Europe , Azerbaijan is fulfilling the needs of EU countries. In the past, during WWs , most of the oil used by Russia was generated from Azerbaijani lands. It is no doubt a big sector of cooperation because Pakistan needs energy sufficiency badly at this time and Azerbaijan has vast experience as well as the resources in this sector.
According to minister Musadik, Azerbaijan 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.
President Ilham Aliyev is sincere friend of Pakistan. He waived of all duties on Pakistani rice export to his country. Azerbaijan is ready to take expert man power from Pakistan , especially in IT sector. Pakistan Azerbaijan signed action plan of 2023-24 for labor market, employment and social protection.
Prime Minister Shehbaz is , as his brother Nawaz Sharif was, close friend of President Ilham. As this scribe always share with the ambassadors of Central Asia and Azerbaijan that Nawaz Sharif was the constructor of Pakistan’s good relations with these countries.
Nawaz Sharif assumed the charge of Prime Minister first time in 1990 and the next year was the independence years of these states. Nawaz Sharif seized this moment to forge close relations with these states by preliminarily recognizing them and establishing diplomatic ties.
Both countries complement each other at different levels. Pakistan has always supported Azerbaijan’s stance on previously known Nagorno Karabakh dispute with Armenia about which Azerbaijan rightly states that there is no such dispute existing now as Azerbaijan liberated her occupied territories in second Karabakh war in Sep-Nov 2020. Azerbaijan stands by Pakistan on Jammu & Kashmir.
Azerbaijan Air and Pakistan International Airlines are operating direct flights. AZAL takes the lead by connecting 3 major cities Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi with Baku.First flight of AZAL landed at Lahore on 24 Sep 2023. Thanks to this easy and fast connectivity, the tourism and trade are increasing. Azerbaijan welcomes more than 50 thousand Pakistani tourists last year while Pakistan is also receiving a good number of Azerbaijani tourists and businessmen.
Pakistan Azerbaijan Direct Connectivity – Another Milestone Achieved – by – Tazeen Akhtar
