Baku, Azerbaijan: The Azerbaijan media widely covered the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Baku, and PM Sharif was on every channel and radio as well as special articles were published in newspapers. However, the best coverage of PM Sharif’s visit was run by Azerbaijan’s state-run News Agency AZERTAC which covered every event and provided news, photos, and video coverage in several languages including Dutch, French, Azari, Russian, and English.
Some of the important news released by AZERTAC to foreign media are hereunder:
Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held an expanded meeting with Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, on February 24, reports state-run news agency AZERTAC.
Speech by President Ilham Aliyev
– My dear brother, Mr. Prime Minister, dear members of the delegation, welcome to Azerbaijan.
I am very glad to host my dear brother once again in our country, now on a state visit. I have great memories of my state visit to Pakistan last year and the hospitality shown to me and my delegation. We are very grateful for that.
Mr. Prime Minister and I have already covered a substantial part of our bilateral agenda in our meeting today, and now we will continue with the delegations.
I’m sure that the visit will strengthen the brotherly ties between our countries. We will continue to support each other in all international institutions. We agreed on our very ambitious economic agenda and today discussed practical projects for our economic cooperation, including investment opportunities. We have already given instructions to our teams to work actively within one month to prepare documents for signing with respect to Azerbaijani investments to Pakistan. During my state visit to Pakistan, I officially announced that Azerbaijan is ready to invest a minimum of $2 billion in different projects in Pakistan.
We already got the list of these projects relatively recently, and our teams are evaluating them. So, my brother and I set a target of one month to finalize everything and receive a report on it.
Our relations are really important not only for our peoples but also for the regions we represent. Seeing these brotherly ties between Pakistan and Azerbaijan is a good example of a partnership between the two brotherly Muslim countries. We always support each other in international institutions, strongly support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our countries, and have, as I said, a very ambitious investment agenda ahead of us. I’m sure that our work on all the issues, and many other areas we will cover today, will continue during the Business Forum and lead to a closer partnership between us. We need to bring our economic partnership to the level of the political field, which will be a good demonstration of mutual political will.
Once again, my dear brother, welcome. I wish you a pleasant stay in Baku.
Speech by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif
– Thank you, my very dear brother, President Ilham Aliyev, honorable members of your cabinet, and honorable members of my delegation. Excellency, thank you very much for your very warm invitation to me.
And here we are in your beautiful city of Baku, which is evergreen, but today it is covered by a blanket of snow, and it looks even more beautiful. This reminds me of your very generous contribution as your team of horticulture experts is in Islamabad. They have done a remarkable job of beautifying Islamabad, which is, Alhamdulillah, a beautiful city, but your team’s vision is remarkable, and I thank you for your gesture.
Your Excellency, your last visit to Pakistan strengthened our bilateral relations immensely. The people of Pakistan were hugely inspired and happy during your visit. I think the hearts of the people of Azerbaijan and Pakistan beat as one. I say this with all sincerity at my command. You have always been a great friend of Pakistan. You love the people of Pakistan.
Similarly, all governments in Pakistan and all political parties in Pakistan have one thing in common, and that is our friendship and brotherhood with Azerbaijan, with you, and with the people of Azerbaijan. I would have loved to visit Shusha tomorrow but because of, you know, extreme weather, I would be very happy to visit that place when we attend the conference in July this year. Then, we can certainly visit those beautiful places.
Your Excellency, during our one-on-one meeting this morning, we had a wonderful and productive discussion.
Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan’s friendship, political understanding, a union of thought and action with Azerbaijan at international levels have been legendary, reports state-run news agency AZERTAC.
“In the month of April, In Sha Allah, once everything is discussed and decided, I’ll be again deeply honored and extremely happy to receive you again in Islamabad in April to ink these agreements valued at $2 billion,” said Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif during a joint press conference with President Ilham Aliyev.
“This will be the first quantum jump in our trade and investment relations and a huge reflection of our fraternal bonds. Because our friendship, political understanding, union of thought and action at international levels, in international forums, have been legendary. I think our business, trade, and investment relations have not reflected the true strength of our relations. I think today we have achieved that target, and In Sha Allah, in a month’s time from now, we will celebrate turning this great decision into action,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
Pakistan to establish Chamber of Commerce in Baku
The Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce has been established in Islamabad, which will really facilitate our bilateral trade,” Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said during the Azerbaijan-Pakistan business forum, reports state-run news agency AZERTAC.
“I think this is what we should also be doing – having a Pakistan Chamber of Commerce here in Baku so that these chambers can really, in real time, collect information, exchange this information, and pass it on to potential traders and investors, which will be very helpful,” the Prime Minister added.
