Baku (TDI): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to boost trade turnover and increase collaboration across different sectors including defence, transportation and connectivity.
During a joint press conference, following the exchange of pre-signed documents of different projects, the two leaders stressed the importance of unlocking the full potential of bilateral trade and investment in a range of mutually beneficial areas.
Prime Minister Shehbaz said that $2 billion investment in Pakistan announced by the Azerbaijan President will bring dividends to both nations.
He said that a one-month time had been given to finalize all the projects and deals in different sectors to be inked in April this year during the visit of Azerbaijan President to Pakistan.
“This will be the first quantum jump in our trade and investment ties and will be a huge reflection of our fraternal relations,” the prime minister said, adding that “Our business, trade, and investment relations were not reflecting the true strength of our ties but today we have achieved that target and in a months’ time we will celebrate this great decision into action”.
President Aliyev regretted that the bilateral trade turnover was only several tens of millions of US dollars that should be increased.
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“I think we have the way how to do it”, he said, adding that “We received concrete projects from Pakistan, and Azerbaijani representatives are analyzing them, today we put ambitious and realistic targets to finalize all the discussions within one month and by the beginning of April, the documents will be prepared for signing”.
He stressed that these projects covered infrastructure development areas as well as energy, economic, mining and others.
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He said during his meeting with PM Shehbaz Sharif, they discussed important matters, and reaffirmed resolve to continue to support each other on all issues of international relations.
Aliyev said they also discussed multiple issues of current international development and collaboration in defence sector, including defence industry.
