BAKU: Azerbaijan said on Friday it is preparing for a significant expansion of economic, defense and investment cooperation with Pakistan, with a senior aide to President Ilham Aliyev telling Arab News bilateral political ties were already at a “strategic level” even as trade remains well below potential.
The remarks come as both governments intensify engagement after a series of high-level visits, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s participation in Baku’s Victory Day parade this month and President Aliyev’s state visit to Pakistan last year.
Despite consistently close political alignment — Islamabad was among the first to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991 — the economic relationship has historically lagged behind.
“We already see the steady growth in the economic and trade relations between the two countries but it’s not satisfactory,” Hikmet Hajjiyev, Head of the Foreign Policy Department at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, told Arab News on the sidelines of the D-8 media summit.
“It’s not commensurate to the level of the political relation between the two countries, and therefore we think that both governments and private sector and business communities should do even more to increase our trade relationship.”
