P akistan’s unequivocal support to Azerbaijan during the 44-day war was the result of 30 years of Islamabad-Baku strategic relations, but not the beginning. However, the high-level bilateral visits and the results of political, military and economic cooperation since the beginning of 2021, state a new stage in Azerbaijan-Pakistan relations. 

Diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan were established in June 1992, when Pakistan recognized the independence of Azerbaijan after Turkey and Romania on December 12, 1991. 

The legal basis for the development of relations between the two countries is the 36 documents signed so far, of which the Joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership between the Azerbaijan Republic and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan signed in 2015, was of special significance.

The driving force for the bilateral interstate relations, generally has been and remains the military-political cooperation, and the anti-Armenian factor has always been at the core of it. Besides the fact, that according to the news circulating so far, the Pakistani fought against Armenian forces in the Azerbaijani troops during the first Karabakh war, as a solidarity with Baku, Pakistan hasn’t yet recognized the independence of Armenia. Moreover, in the international arena, Pakistan has provided permanent legal and political assistance to Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Khojaly issues. On April 30, 1993, with the presidency of Pakistan, the UN Security Council adopted the famous resolution 822 concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in which the UN Security Council also expressed concern over the latest invasion of the Kelbadjar district of Azerbaijan by local Armenian forces. In February 2012, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Pakistan and in 2017, the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Pakistan recognized the events in Khojaly as “genocide”.

Pakistan has been acting against Armenia within the framework of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Azerbaijan, in its turn, has supported Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir conflicts against India. Ties between the two countries also develop in a trilaterally Ankara-Baku-Islamabad format.  

Pakistan’s support to Azerbaijan in the 44-day war in Artsakh

А s a result of a long-term multidisciplinary cooperation, since the unleashed 44-day war in Artsakh, in 2020, Islamabad has unequivocally expressed its support for Baku. On the first day of the war, on September 27, four publications were made at once on Twitter account of the Ministry of Defense of Pakistan in support to Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan stated: "Pakistan supports the brotherly people of Azerbaijan and their right to self-defense." Just 2 days later, on September 29, Bilal Haye, Pakistan's newly appointed ambassador to Azerbaijan already stated, that they are very happy to say that “Karabakh is Azerbaijan”. 

In general, one of the vivid evidences of the military-political cooperation between the two countries during the whole period of war was that the flag of Pakistan was waving along with Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s flags in Azerbaijani cities and villages. In those days, by publishing of one of those scenes, Pakistani Defense Ministry even circulated “one nation, three states” slogan. 

Another important episode of cooperation was recorded during the meeting between Azerbaijani Ambassador to Islamabad Ali Alizada and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Nadeem Raza on October 9, 2020, where the latter mentioned that “Pakistani Armed Forces fully support Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh” (1,2). And this was despite the case when Pakistani Foreign Ministry unequivocally denied (1,2) press (including Indian) publications, then also the statement of the Prime Minister Of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on the practical assistance provided to Azerbaijani armed forces by the Pakistani army. It’s noteworthy, that the message of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry refuting Pashinyan’s statement referred to I. Aliyev’s claim, that Azerbaijan does not need military assistance, hence Turkey and Pakistan provide only moral and political assistance. With that statement, Aliyev indirectly put a sign of equality between Turkey and Pakistan in the case when Turkey’s military involvement in the 44-day war seems no longer need to be proven. 

During military operations, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, in his turn, expressed solidarity with Azerbaijan, noting “We respect the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, which courageously protect its territorial integrity”, while the government repeatedly expressed concern about “targeting Azerbaijani residential areas” (1,2,3), which resulted in the adoption of resolution “strongly condemning the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and the brutal attacks of the Armenian Armed Forces on the civilian population of Azerbaijan”. In those days, Azerbaijan expressed its gratitude to Pakistan for its support at the highest levels (1,2,3), and Azerbaijani press noted, that they would never forget that “Pakistan stood next to Baku in its struggle for justice”. 

On November 9, after the publication of the trilateral statement by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, Islamabad was one of the first to congratulate “the government and the brotherly people of Azerbaijan with the liberation of the territories”. 

Pakistan-Azerbaijan partnership after the 44-day war in Arstakh

A fter the 44-day war in Artsakh, however, since the beginning of 2021, there were more practical developments in the political, military and economic fields in the relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan. Actually, bilateral cooperation was raised to a new level or at least the current level was strengthened through high-level meetings, announcements and signed documents.  

Political cooperation

O n January 13-14, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov paid an official visit to Islamabad, where he was received by the President of Pakistan Arif Alvi, Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi and the Chief of the General Staff of the Army Qamar Javid Bajwa. During the meetings, Bayramov was once again congratulated on Azerbaijan’s victory in the war. In his turn, he expressed gratitude for the congratulations, emphasizing that they will keep on supporting Pakistan in the Kashmir issue. The deepening of bilateral relations, including in the military field was also emphasized.  

The main episode of Bayramov’s visit, however, was the trilateral meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan in Islamabad and the adoption of a joint declaration.  

The new declaration, referring to the reservations made as a result of the first meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Baku, in 2017, stressed the need to deepen trilateral cooperation in the political, strategic, trade and economic, security, scientific-technical and cultural fields. Based on the new declaration, the parties also agreed on intensifying efforts in the fight against Islamophobia. The need to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir conflicts on the basis of the UN Security Council Resolutions was also emphasized. The sides also expressed support for the “fair” settlement of the Cyprus, Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Sea issues, the end of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, as well as the normalization of relations on the basis of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. 

Few months after Bayramov’s visit, in June, Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Sahibe Gafarova paid an official visit to Pakistan. During the meeting with Pakistani counterpart Assad Kaiser, she stressed, that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the development of relations with Pakistan and the President of Pakistan  A. Alvi stressed, that the relations between their country and Azerbaijan are at the level of a strategic alliance. In her meetings, S. Gafarova also mentioned about the need to develop parliamentary ties, and about two months later, on July 27, the first trilateral meeting of the heads of the Parliaments of Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkey was held in Baku. During the meeting, Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Mustafa Sentop announced, that the tripartite platform at the level of foreign ministers will now operate at the parliamentary level. He also stressed that in the future, a mechanism will be created at the level of heads of state to further strengthen relations between the three countries. At the end of the meeting, which was defined as “historic event” by Gafarova, the Baku Declaration was adopted. 

Adoption of Baku Declaration

The Baku Declaration, which once again congratulated Azerbaijan on “restoring the state’s territorial integrity after about 30 years of occupation by Armenia”, contained many points, which can be summed up in the following statements: 

• The sides reaffirmed their commitment to develop inter-parliamentary dialogue and cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels.
• The sides expressed readiness to cooperate on regional and global issues of mutual interest and stated that they will try to take a common position in international parliamentary organizations (also in the fight against Islamophobia and oppression of Muslim minorities) as “three brotherly countries”. 
• The sides agreed to provide comprehensive support to their governments for better regional cooperation in transport, trade, energy, international relations, education, social and culture, tourism, information and communication technology.
• The sides condemned the refusal of Armenia to provide Azerbaijan with maps of mined areas, they stressed their full solidarity with Azerbaijan in the reconstruction of the liberated lands and the return of refugees to their homes.

With regard to the last point, since the end of the war Pakistan has repeatedly expressed its readiness at various levels to take part in demining, reconstruction of the territories under Azerbaijan’s control and settlement of Azeris in those territories, however, so far there is no information or statement on Pakistan’s involvement in any project.   

The delegations of the Speakers of the three parliaments paid symbolic visits to Shushi and Varanda on the next day of the signing of the declaration, on July 29. They prayed at Shushi mosque, and visited the Hunot Canyon. On July 30, Gafarova and Kaiser had a private conversation, at the end of which a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Parliaments of Azerbaijan and Pakistan.  

It should be noted, that after the 44-day war, the Pakistani side regularly as before continues drawing parallels between the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Jammu and Kashmir conflicts, thus expressing hope that their issue will also get a so-called “fair solution”.

“August 5, 2021 marks the second anniversary of the illegal and unilateral actions of the Indian government in the internationally recognized disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. We appreciate the support of the Government and people of Azerbaijan in the struggle for Kashmir in all international forums. We hope that while the people of Azerbaijan are rejoicing in the liberation of their lands from foreign occupation, the people of Jammu and Kashmir will soon be able to celebrate their liberation from foreign domination and illegal foreign occupation” ; stated Pakistani Ambassador to Azerbaijan Bilal Haye in his article "August 5 - a terrible turning point in the Jammu and Kashmir dispute."

Military cooperation

S ince the beginning of the year, in parallel with such contacts, there has also been recorded an active cooperation in the military field. 

First, it should be noted that the legal basis for bilateral military cooperation is the agreement on “Defense and military cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” signed in 2002, in the city of Karachi. The visit of the President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf to Baku in 2004, when he emphasized that the sides have a common interest in the military field, as well as the claim made by Pakistani Defense Minister Syed Athar Ali in 2010, in Baku, that Pakistan intends to strengthen ties with Azerbaijan in those fields played an important role in deepening of the cooperation. Azerbaijan, which in turn was interested in cooperating with the only Muslim country in the world having a nuclear arms, participated in Pakistani AMAN-2013 multinational naval exercises in 2013. Already in 2014, during the 5th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Pakistan Working Group on Military Cooperation, a bilateral military cooperation agreement was signed. In 2016, former president of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif stated in Azerbaijan that the two countries will hold military exercises, and later Azerbaijan stated that he is interested in Pakisati-Chinese JF-17 fighter jets as well as in PAC MFI-17 Mushshak (Super Mushshak) basic trainer aircrafts (1). 

In January-September, 2021, the dynamics of bilateral military cooperation rose to a new level. First, let us mention, that if in 2019, Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan already announced about purchasing Super Mushshak aircrafts and training on them (the contract for the purchase of the aircrafts was signed in 2017), then according to the news spread on Russian and Azerbaijani media in January, 2021, Azerbaijani side should have already purchased the JF-17 fighter jets in February, 2021. This information, according to which Baku will purchase 21 JF-17 fighter jets from Pakistan within 10 years, was neither confirmed nor denied by Azerbaijani Government. 

However, in January-September, many high-ranking Pakistani military such as the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Nadeem Raza (1,2,3,4,5), the Commander of Turkish Air Force, Air Chief Marshall Mujahid Anwar Khan (1,2,3), his deputy, Air Vice Marshal Amir Masood (1,2), Air Vice Marshal Tariq Zia (1,2), the Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa (1,2,3,4,5), Pakistan Army's Director General Military Operations Major General Nauman Zakaria (1,2) and many others paid visits to Baku and had various meetings. The Commander of Naval Forces Rear Admiral Subhan Bakirov, in his turn, visited Islamabad (1,2,3,4,5). In parallel with such high-level meetings, Pakistan’s ambassador to Baku Bilal Haye and Azerbaijani ambassador to Islamabad Ali Alizada also had meetings with the military leadership of Azerbaijan and Pakistan respectively (1,2,3,4).

During the meetings, Pakistan and Azerbaijan attached importance to the exchange of experience of the armed forces of the two countries, mutual visits, joint exercises and further strengthening of military, military-technical and military-educational cooperation. It was noted, that there is a significant potential for bringing the military cooperation to a new level, the development of which is of the mutual interests and that efforts in this direction should be intensified. 

On March 3, receiving Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan Nadeem Raza, Azerbaijani President I. Aliev, speaking about the great potential in the field of military cooperation, stated that Baku intends to continue the process of purchasing military equipment from Pakistan and stressed that “the time has come for holding joint military exercises”. Aliyev made the same observations during the meeting with the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Qamar Javed Bajwa on June 21.

It should be emphasized, that the plans for holding a joint military exercise were clearly stated in 2020. Besides spreading some information in Azerbaijani media early in the year, this was stated by Azerbaijan's military attaché to Pakistan, Colonel Mehman Novruzov in his interview with CBC, on September 11. After I. Aliev’s statement in 2021, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov stated in his interview with Real TV on June 26, that the military exercises should be held in September and in a tripartite format, that is Turkey-Azerbaijan-Pakistan. 

The military exercise, which is another indicator of military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Pakistan took place between September 12-21, with the participation of special forces of the three countries. It was given the symbolic name “Three Brothers” (1,2,3,4). It was mentioned at the closing ceremony of the military exercise that the trilateral ties will be deepened from now on.

Episode from the opening ceremony of Turkey-Azerbaijan-Pakistan military exercise

It’s no coincidence that such a close and deep military cooperation began to be used in the political field as a counteraction to all the states wishing to go up against Azerbaijan. In particular, during the tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani political circles began stress, that in case of a wrong step against Azerbaijan, Pakistani troops will be in Tehran. 

Economic cooperation

I n 2021, economic relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan also developed, although the level of bilateral economic cooperation is not high and does not satisfy the sides. 

Azerbaijan is a member of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) since 1992, which was founded in 1985 by Pakistan, Turkey and Iran. Azerbaijan and Pakistan signed the agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation in 1995, and the sessions of an interstate joint commission with an attached protocol are held every 2 years (the last session took place in April, 2016, in Islamabad). There is an intergovernmental working group between Azerbaijan and Pakistan (the last session was held in December, 2020). The opening of the National Bank of Pakistan in 2005, in Baku was a significant event for the development of bilateral economic relations, the aim of which is to promote the development of economic ties ( based on 2021 data, however, the branch of the bank works at a loss). 

Nevertheless, the trade turnover between the two countries is small and its development rates are also slow. 

Date	Export (thousand US dollars)	Import (thousand US dollars)	Total trade turnover (thousand US dollars)
2015	1 703,0	293,6	1 996,6
2016	5 862,2	1 433,2	7 295,4
2017	6 424,7	1 826,4	8 251,1
2018	10 359,4	808,1	11 167,5
2019	14 487,3	294,5	14 781,8
2020	11 625,5	1 657,6	13 283,1
The data are taken from the  website the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan

According to the data of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, the total annual trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $14 781,8 thousand before Covid pandemic, which is a very small percentage of the total annual trade turnover of Azerbaijan, which amounted to $33 302 678,5 thousand in the same year. Azerbaijan imports agricultural products from Pakistan (cereals, fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, cotthon, sugar), medical and optical equipment, pharmaceutical and textile products. Pakistan imports vehicles, iron and steel products, mineral fuel, oils, electronic devices, pharmaceutical and textile products from Azerbaijan. 

The main reason for the underdevelopment of economic relations is the geographical distance between the two countries, as well as the lack of infrastructure. 

There were no direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan until 2021, which was an obstacle to the development of trade and economic ties. 

Pakistan International Airlines announced in February 2021, that it will launch direct flights from Baku to Lahore from March 14. Ali Alizada, already the former Azerbaijani ambassador to Pakistan, confirmed that information in an interview with Pakistani media, noting that there will be direct flights after the spread of the Covid pandemic, which will have a positive impact on economic and trade relations. Later, however, the Pakistani Airline announced, that the direct flights will be launched from May 14, but there were no direct flights on June 7, as Pakistan’s ambassador to Azerbaijan announced on that day that direct flights are expected to be launched soon. The establishment of direct air communication will be a practical step towards the development of economic cooperation, and the need to use its potential is always emphasized by the high-ranking circles of the two countries. 

Another significant event took place in bilateral relations during this year: the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Chamber of Economic Cooperation (PAKAZCHAM) was established, which, is expected to become a unique platform for trade and investment promotion. During the opening ceremony of the Chamber, Deputy Economy Minister Elnur Aliyev stated, that there are also discussions on opening an Azerbaijani Trade House in Pakistan. It should be noted, that steps were also taken to expand bilateral relations in the field of logistics during the year. It’s a known fact that Pakistani side has long been interested in joining the North-South corridor and that Pakistan once invited Baku to join China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), taking into account Azerbaijan’s strategic position as a hub for the East-West road corridor ranging from China to Europa, which is a part of a larger Chinese project, the Silk Road. 

To sum up, we can say that during the 44-day war in Artsakh, Azerbaijan-Pakistan relations were manifested at the highest level of strategic partnership, and after the war they entered a new active stage of development. Throughout 2021, both sides more than ever made serious efforts for the development of military-political and economic cooperation. Although the economic cooperation results continue to be dissatisfying for both sides and steps are taken to develop economic ties, bilateral cooperation both in political and military fields is strengthening day by day. Moreover, the military-political cooperation expands not only bilaterally, but also trilaterally, in Ankara-Baku-Islamabad format, creating a new tandem in the region.