PM wants $2b Azeri investment formalised within a month

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to boosting trade turnover and increasing cooperation across various sectors, including defence, transportation, and connectivity.

Appearing at a joint press stakeout, following the exchange of pre-signed documents of various projects, the two leaders emphasised the importance of unlocking full potential of bilateral trade and investment in a range of mutually beneficial areas.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that the $2 billion investment in Pakistan announced by the Azerbaijan president will bring dividends to both countries. A one-month time has been given to finalise all the projects and agreements in various sectors to be signed in April this year during the visit of Azerbaijan's president to Pakistan.

"This will be the first quantum jump in our trade and investment relations and will be a huge reflection of our fraternal ties," the prime minister said. "Our business, trade, and investment ties are not reflecting the true strength of our relations, but today, we have achieved that target and in a month's time we will celebrate this great decision into action."

President Aliyev regretted that the bilateral trade turnover was only several tens of millions of dollars that is needed to be increased. "I think we have the way how to do it," he added. "We received concrete projects from Pakistan, and Azerbaijani representatives are evaluating them, today we put ambitious and realistic targets to finalise all the discussions within one month and by the beginning of April, the documents will be prepared for signing."

The Azerbaijan leader emphasised that these projects cover infrastructure development areas as well as energy, economic, mining and others. He said during his meeting with PM Shehbaz Sharif, they discussed important issues, and reaffirmed resolve to continue supporting each other on all issues of international relations.

He said they also discussed several issues of current international development and cooperation in defence area, including defence industry. "Azerbaijan has already acquired defence equipment from Pakistan and we are satisfied with the quality of this equipment and we will continue to do that."

At the same time, he said, they also discussed opportunity of joint manufacturing in defence industrial items, which will be another important sector of bilateral cooperation.

About connectivity and transportation sectors, President Aliyev said that the people-to-people contacts had also been developed successfully between the two countries. "With regular airlines connection, the number will grow and we will see more regular interactions between the two countries."

Praising Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's vision and reforms which he implemented in Pakistan, he said these steps brought important results in areas of economy and political stability. "All is due to your hard work and work of your team, and we as your brother and friend, really happy on the achievements under your leadership," he added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his gratitude to the Azerbaijan president for dispatching his delegation to Islamabad to add further beauty and attraction to Islamabad.

He also thanked him for his country's continued support for the cause of Kashmir without any political conditions. "We deeply appreciate this and I hope that resolutions passed by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council will be materialised one day soon through our collective efforts," he added.

The prime minister underscored that the People of Gaza now needed permanent ceasefire and today is the time that pause in Gaza should now be converted into permanent ceasefire and dream of two-state of this area should be materialised.

Visit

President Aliyev expressed his willingness to visit Islamabad this April to formalise agreements for $2 billion worth of investment projects in Pakistan. The intention was conveyed during a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Azerbaijan leader in Baku.

Both the leaders had tête-à-tête and reiterated the commitment to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation in diverse fields. Both leaders reaffirmed the strategic partnership between the two countries and expressed satisfaction on the joint efforts to further strengthen the close and fraternal ties.

The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the active cooperation between the two countries at multilateral fora, especially the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

Later, Prime Minister Shehbaz and President Aliyev witnessed the exchange ceremony of agreements and MoUs to bolster cooperation in various sectors.

Victory Monument

Prime Minister Shehbaz visited the recently built "Victory Monument" to honour the heroes and martyrs of the 44-day war for the independence of Nagorno Karabakh.

The victory in the war was historic for restoring regional integrity of Azerbaijan.

The prime minister laid a floral wreath at the monument to pay tribute to the national heroes of Azerbaijan for their sacrifices.