Pakistan, Azerbaijan agree to expand investment volume upto $2 bn

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Pakistan and Azerbaijan on Thursday 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 signing of agreements and MoUs in diverse areas between the two countries, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said “we have discussed an initial figure of $2 billion of investment in areas of mutual beneficial projects”.

The prime minister hoped that when he will visit Azerbaijan in November this year, the two sides would be ready to ink agreements worth $2 billion to start with as there was great potential in both sides to multiply this figure in years to come.

“In today’s in depth conversation, we have agreed to enhance our bilateral trade besides discussing areas of joint cooperation and joint investments,” he added.

He said “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”.

Expressing satisfaction over the bilateral meeting, the prime minister said discussions were held on mutual trust and confidence where both sides expressed their unwavering commitment to move forward and touch higher levels of achievements in the fields of trade and investment.

He emphasized that Pakistan had always supported Azerbaijan’s stand, while the brotherly country had always supported the cause of millions of Kashmiris who had rendered huge sacrifices for more than seven decades to achieve their right of self determination as per UN Security Council resolutions.

He recalled the President Aliyev’s visit in 2017 during the tenure of then PM Nawaz Sharif saying that history was repeating as Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother was now receiving him along with people of Pakistan.

PM Shehbaz hoped that the COP29 to be hosted by Azerbaijan in Baku would be a significant international event for all developing countries including Pakistan. “We are confident that under your wise stewardship, COP29 will deliver on the climate change related issues of developing countries like Pakistan.”

He said the government was impressed by the beautification of Baku therefore it decided to copy Baku.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion said the brotherhood between the two countries was based on deep feelings between peoples of the two sides. “This connection is a big asset, we are brothers, we are friends, and we support each other on every international issue.”

He stated that “Our state forward support on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is our commitment to our brotherhood and also our respect to international law, the rights of Kashmiris are ignored and violated for decades”.

He said the UN Security Council resolutions clearly indicated how this issue must be resolved but unfortunately UNSC resolutions had no mechanism of implementation.

“But we as brothers and friends will always stand side by side with you, with our brothers in Kashmir, with International law, with justice and I am sure justice will prevail,” he added.

He said the two sides were analyzing the projects for initial investment of $2 billion. “During our today’s conversation, we reviewed several projects in the areas of energy, connectivity, infrastructure, and defence industry,” he said adding “we will built strong partnership not only on political level that we already had but on economic and trade investment levels as well”.