Gilani meets Azeri president

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gillani, leading a parliamentary delegation to Azerbaijan, on Thursday called on Azerbaijan President Ilham Heydar Aliyev and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest, bilateral cooperation and regional peace.

According to the Senate Secretariat, Gillani observed that Pakistan cherished its long historic, cultural and religious affinities with Azerbaijan and desires to further expand the mutually beneficial relationship in diverse sectors. He underscored the need for regular interactions between parliamentary leaders. He said Pakistan and Azerbaijan already signed and MoU to enhance parliamentary cooperation. The two parliaments have dedicated friendship groups which are contributing to deepening bilateral relations. He underlined the need for enhanced trade and economic relations between the two countries while informing the president that the Special Investment Facilitation Council has been created to serve as the single window platform for multi-domain cooperation in agriculture, defence production, information technology, energy and mining. He urged Azerbaijani companies to explore new avenues for investment in Pakistan. He said both countries supported each other at international fora. He acknowledged the efforts of Azerbaijan to make excellent arrangement for organising APA plenary in Baku.

In another meeting with the Sahiba Gafarova, Speaker of Mili Majlis of Azerbaijan, Gillani said historical and cultural similarities were deep-rooted and the bond of friendship between Baku and Islamabad was getting stronger with each passing day. The Multani Caravan Siraiy in Baku is a living testimony to “our centuries’ old connection”. He expressed satisfaction on institutional collaboration. However, he called for more parliamentary and other high-level exchanges. High-level contacts between the two reflect the common desire to strength and diversify relationship to its potential. Parliamentary friendship groups exist to further boost cooperation in diverse sectors.

Gillani observed that trade and economic relations needed to be further diversified. Institutional mechanism, he said, existed and had regular interaction. He informed the speaker about the SIFC made for more investment. He noted that operationalization of direct flights would help open up more vistas of cooperation for strengthening bilateral ties.

The speaker thanked the chairman and his delegation for the visit and active participation in the 15th plenary of Asian Parliamentary Assembly.