Islamabad (TDI): The 8th Session of the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Joint Commission successfully concluded on Friday, reaffirming bilateral commitments across key sectors while furthering cooperation in energy, trade, defense, agriculture, and education.
The session was co-chaired by Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Federal Minister for Defence Production of Pakistan, and Vugar Valeh oglu Mustafayev, Minister for Defence Industry of Azerbaijan.
During the talks, both sides agreed to implement the Azerbaijan-Pakistan Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), signed in July 2024, as well as to consider joint ventures and investments.
Both sides committed to facilitating collaboration between their customs authorities and expediting the inking of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on establishing an Advance Electronic Data Interchange between the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan and Pakistan Customs Service.
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They also agreed to expedite the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defense industry cooperation and increase joint production and sale of defense hardware.
In the energy sector, discussions were held to further the project on Strategic Underground Gas Storage in Pakistan.
Pakistan invited Azerbaijan to partake in energy infrastructure projects like the White Oil Pipeline.
Cooperation in agriculture and food security were also discusses where an agreement was reached to further strengthen bilateral cooperation through joint research on grain cultivation, cotton, and seed development.
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The two sides committed to facilitating business-to-business exchanges to advance agro-commodity trade.
They also discussed cooperation in health sector, and agreed to share experience in advanced diagnostics, medical tourism and public health emergencies, as well as explore cooperation opportunities in health-related research and capacity-building.
On the way forward, both sides agreed to convene the ninth Session of the Commission in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2027.
