Baku, 31 July 2021 (TDI): Asad Qaiser, Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, inaugurated Pakistan Culture Centre in Baku on Saturday.
Ganira Pashayeva, Chairperson of Azerbaijan-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Group, Parliamentarians of Pakistan National Assembly, and several members of Mili Majlis of Azerbaijan were also present at the inauguration ceremony.
Kamal Mehdi Abdullayev, Rector of Azerbaijan Linguistic University, welcomed Asad Qaiser to the university where he cut the ribbon and toured various sections of the Pakistan Culture Centre.
The Rector informed Asad Qaiser about the language, cultural courses, and activities of the University. Later, a short documentary film on the heritage, culture, and geography of Pakistan was screened in the Heydar Aliyev Conference hall.
Asad Qaiser thanked the government of Azerbaijan and the Rector of the University for their support in establishing the Pakistan Cultural Centre at Azerbaijan Linguistic University.
The Azerbaijani people, he said, will be able to learn more about the people, geography, and culture of Pakistan through the Center. He hoped that the center would have a positive impact on people-to-people engagements between the two nations.
Pakistan-Azerbaijan Relations
Azerbaijan and Pakistan are two brotherly Muslim countries with unique commonalities of historical, religious, and political nature. The relation goes back to the time when both nations were part of the Persian Empire.
Pakistan recognized the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991 (the second country after Turkey) and the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992. Pakistan was one of the first countries to open its Embassy in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
After the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, there was no look back and the ties grow at a steady pace. Both countries built a deeper and closer brotherly bond which is strengthening and growing ever since this time.
Leadership and people of both countries feel closer to each other. Ever since the first visit of the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif who visited the Azerbaijani capital, Baku in 1995, and a reciprocal visit of Azerbaijan’s late President Heydar Aliyev in April 1996 to Pakistan, both countries have covered lots of ground in political and economic spheres.
Both countries have supported each other in every international forum. Pakistan and the people of Pakistan can well understand and feel the pain of the Azerbaijani people and the suffering of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh because we are facing bloodshed in Kashmir since the time of our inception in 1947.
Azerbaijan supports Pakistan’s position on the Kashmir issue and Pakistan supports Azerbaijan’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Pakistan is the only country in the world that has not yet recognized Armenia because of its aggression to the Azerbaijani people. This has also resulted in the successful development of relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan. They have been established on the ground of friendly and fraternal principles.
