ISLAMABAD: The governments of Pakistan and Azerbaijan signed 15 agreements in various fields including transit trade, mineral resources and tourism during the ongoing visit of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
Aliyev arrived in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Thursday for a two-day official visit to bolster economic cooperation between the two countries. Pakistan and Azerbaijan enjoy cordial ties and cooperation in various areas such as defense, trade and tourism.
“Pakistan and Azerbaijan have signed fifteen agreements and MoUs [memorandum of understandings] for cooperation in diverse fields,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said in a report.
The video showed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Aliyev clapping as ministers from both sides shook hands and signed the MoUs.
Both sides signed agreements in various fields such as consular affairs, transit trade, preferential trade, privatization of state property, law and justice, mineral resources and geology.
According to Radio Pakistan, the two countries also signed agreements regarding culture exchange programs, cooperation in information technology and telecommunication, television production, scientific and technical cooperation, tourism, air services, and the establishment of twin cities of Baku and Islamabad.
Agreements relating to small and medium enterprises, literature and science were also inked between the two sides.
While welcoming Azerbaijan’s president to Pakistan, PM Sharif urged both countries to enhance bilateral trade and cooperation, adding that the volume of trade between the two countries currently stood at a “minuscule” level of $100 million.
“If I may say with your permission, brother president, that we have discussed an initial figure of $2 billion of investments in areas of mutual beneficial projects,” Sharif said as the audience broke out in applause. “For that we had initial discussions today and tomorrow, a formal discussion will take place with the teams of the two countries.”
Sharif said he would undertake a visit to Azerbaijan in November this year, hoping the two countries would ink agreements worth $2 billion then.
“There is great potential in both sides to really enhance these figures to billions of dollars in years to come,” the Pakistani premier said.
Aliyev confirmed that delegations of the two countries would meet on Friday to discuss investment projects worth $2 billion.
“We have already reviewed several projects in the areas of energy, infrastructure, connectivity and many others, including defense industry where we are cooperating very successfully,” he said. “So, we will build a strong partnership not only on a political level which we already have but on economic level, trade and investment levels.”
Aliyev’s visit takes place as Pakistan increasingly seeks to position itself as a transit hub connecting landlocked Central Asian states to the Arabian Sea.
Islamabad has sought to bolster trade and investment relations with allies to stabilize its fragile $350 billion economy that faces an acute balance of payment crisis, soaring inflation and surging external debt.
Pakistan last year narrowly avoided a sovereign debt default when it secured a last-gasp $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Since April, Sharif has undertaken visits to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates while Pakistan has received important diplomatic and business delegations from Iran, China, Azerbaijan, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries to bolster trade and cut reliance on foreign aid.
