BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct 14 (APP): Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Artur Rasizade on Friday said his country was
eager to establish cooperation in the defense industry with
Pakistan.
The Prime Minister of Azerbaijan said this during his meeting with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, who is in
Baku on a three day official visit to the Central Asian State.
The two leaders during their meeting discussed bilateral
relations including the prospects of cooperation in diverse areas, regional situation as well as other issues of mutual interest.
Prime Minister Artur Rasizade cordially welcomed Prime
Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and other delegates on arrival at the Prime Minister office in Baku.
The Azerbaijani Prime Minister said that his country had
high level of relations with Pakistan and there existed great potential of economic cooperation between the two countries.
“I am confident that this particular visit will help a lot in greatly improving the bilateral relationship between the two countries. The people and government of Pakistan have always supported the just position of Azerbaijan on all international forums. We convey our deepest gratitude to you and the people of Pakistan for all the support,” he added.
The Prime Minister of Azerbaijan said, “We are committed and categoric in our position that the Kashmir issue must be resolved as per the UNSC’s resolutions”.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif thanked his
Azerbaijani counterpart on the warm reception and said that he was greatly delighted to be in the wonderful city of Baku.
“Pakistan attaches great importance to its fraternal relations with Azerbaijan. We need to intensify the brotherly relations on all levels. Both the countries need to transform the fraternal relationship into enduring economic cooperation,” he added.
Prime Minister Sharif said that he held productive meetings with the President of Azerbaijan during the day wherein both the leaders agreed to expand cooperation in the field of energy, defense and connectivity.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan and Azerbaijan
were bound by faith, history and culture. “Pakistani people have the highest regard for the people of Azerbaijan.
Pakistan deeply values the brotherly relations with Azerbaijan and we take pride in the fact that Pakistan was amongst the first three countries to recognize Azerbaijan as an independent state,” he added.
Prime Minister Sharif thanked the Prime Minister of
Azerbaijan on supporting Pakistan’s stance on the issue of
Kashmir.
He informed his counterpart from Azerbaijan that the
Indian forces had inflicted unspeakable atrocities on unarmed people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK); killing about 112 while seriously injuring more than 7000 people in the recent wave of violence against the people of IOK.
More than 200 people have been blinded by the use of
pellet guns in Indian Occupied Kashmir, the Prime Minister added.
About Afghanistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that
a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan and his country firmly believed that a politically negotiated settlement was key to durable peace.
He also invited Azerbaijan authorities to take advantage
of defence production capacities of Pakistan.
He said that the existing trade and investment between
the two countries did not commensurate with their real potential and vowed to take the current volume of $ 500 million trade to further height through a five years comprehensive programme.
The Prime Minister noted with satisfaction that
President of Azerbaijan would be visiting Pakistan during
February 2017, whereas a high powered delegation from the Central Asian Republic would also visit Karachi to explore windows for further economic cooperation.
He also reiterated the unequivocal support to Azerbaijan
over the Nagorno Karabakh issue and said that Pakistan was the country which did not recognize the illegal occupation of
Azerbaijan lands by Armenia.
Later, the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan gave a dinner in
the honour of Prime Minister and his delegation.
