By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Speaker Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova has said that her country supports Pakistan’s principled position on Kashmir dispute.
Talking to Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser here on Thursday, she said resolution of Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions was imperative for durable peace in the region.
The Azerbaijan speaker emphasized the need for greater parliamentary exchanges between Pakistan and Azerbaijan to strengthen bilateral relations and bring the peoples of two countries further close to each other.
Sahiba Gafarova said Azerbaijan gives immense importance to its relations with Pakistan. Speaker Asad Qaiser said the Central Asian States including Azerbaijan can use Gwadar port for promotion of trade.
He said there were vast opportunities of promotion of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the areas of trade, economy and tourism.
Asad Qaiser said Pakistan supports Azerbaijan’s stance on Nagorno-Karabakh. As reported earlier, Parliamentary Delegation led by Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova was arrived in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on May 31.
Azerbaijani delegation was welcomed at “Nur Khan” Airport in Islamabad by Deputy Speaker of the Senate of Pakistan Mohammad Mirza Afridi, Member of the National Assembly, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Gulzar Khan, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Alizadeh and other officials.On June 1, the members of the delegation had attended the two-day second General Conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of Economic Cooperation Organization in Islamabad. In last January, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov had arrived on his two-day official visit to Pakistan.
According to Pakistan Foreign Ministry, that was the first bilateral visit from Azerbaijan at the foreign minister-level in over a decade. Upon arrival, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warmly welcomed Bayramov at the Foreign Ministry in the capital Islamabad.
Later the two foreign ministers hold delegation-level talks and discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues, Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in all filed including trade, agriculture, education, science, and technology.
Qureshi also congratulated Bayramov on his country’s victory to liberated their key territories from the Armenian occupation. While Bayramov thanked Qureshi for Pakistan’s consistent support to his country over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Bayramov will also participate in the second trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu already arrived for the meeting late Tuesday.
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, and seven adjacent regions.
