Azerbaijan, Pakistan further boost military ties
By Amina Nazarli
Baku has announced its interest in developing cooperation with Islamabad, one of its close allies in the Asian continent, in all areas, particularly in political, economic and military spheres.
The ways of developing relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan were explored as Rashad Mahmood, Chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee was on three-day visit to Baku.
The cooperation in the military and defense industry sphere was one of the main issues of discussions between Azerbaijani and Pakistani officials in Baku.
The fundamental building block of the bilateral bonds is military cooperation. The sides intend to join efforts to gain access to modern technologies, as well as modernize their potential.
Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, addressing the meeting with Rashad Mahmood, stressed the importance of developing cooperation in the fields of security, defense, military, military-technical and military education, as well as expansion of relations and organization visits of expert groups.
The sides exchanged views on the issues on combat readiness joint trainings, cooperation in the fight against terrorism, also development of relation between Air and Naval Forces of Azerbaijan and Pakistan.
During the Baku visit, the delegation led by Mahmood also met Chief of Azerbaijan's State Border Service Elchin Guliyev to mull prospects of cooperation in military-technical field.
The two highlighted Azerbaijan-Pakistani relations, saying these ties increased to the level of strategic partnership.
It is very important to unite the efforts of Azerbaijan and Pakistan to effectively combat such kinds of transnational organized crime as international terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal migration, Colonel-General Ramil Usubov said at the meeting with the Pakistani officials.
Usubov stressed the importance of two intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in combating international terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking. The Azerbaijani minister added that these agreements were signed for the expansion of relations between the interior ministries of the two countries.
Mahmood, for his part, emphasized the importance of learning and using the positive experience of the two countries, the development of strategic partnership and friendly relations in all spheres between Azerbaijan and Pakistan.
Pakistan supported Azerbaijan during and after the Nagorno-Karabakh War and it is the only country that does not recognize Armenia.
Relations between the two states were established after Azerbaijan became independent following the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Pakistan was among the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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