Azerbaijan and Pakistan Go for Military Cooperation
By Aliya Sadkova
Baku, Azerbaijan: The recent visit of Gen. Rashad Mahmood, Chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee to Azerbaijan is being considered by Azeri media as “very fruitful” for Baku.
His visit was widely covered by national media including apa news agency, Vestik newspaper, CBC news agency Baku, News Azerbaijan, AZERBAIJAN STATE NEWS AGENCY, Azer Tacc, daily Report newspaper and daily newspaper Azernews. News was published in English, Russia and Azeri media houses and Radio Baku also broadcast news about close relations of Azerbaijan and Pakistan.
Gen. Rashad Mahmood met civil and military leadership of Azerbaijan during his three-day visit that started on March 1, 2016.
During his meeting with Gen. Rashad Mahmood, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev expressed his interest in developing cooperation with Pakistan in all areas, particularly in political, economic, cultural and military spheres.
Addressing the event, Ilham Aliyev hailed the successful development of relations between the two countries. President Aliyev also emphasized the importance of the two countries’ constant support for each other within the international organizations.
Discussions on the strengthening of the cooperation held in Presidential office and President Ilham Aliyev expressed positive note about success of the meeting in terms of taking additional measures towards the expansion of ties.
Gen. Mahmood, in turn, emphasized the ancient history of political, cultural and religious ties between the two countries. The Pakistani representative noted that Azerbaijan and Pakistan have always supported each other in most difficult times.
“We have always been willing to improve these relations, Azerbaijan is in our heart, and we have always proved it,” Gen. Mahmood added.
Both sides highlighted successfully developing relations between the two countries, adding the strategic partnership in political, economic, cultural fields yielded fruitful results.
During his visit, the Pakistani delegation met with Azerbaijani military as well as civil leadership. The Pakistani delegation was received by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade.
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.
Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov during his meeting with Gen. 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 Gen. 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.
Gen. 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.
March 2, Minister of Emergency Situations, Colonel-General Kamaladdin Heydarov met with the delegation headed by the Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Pakistan, General Rashad Mahmood.
As According to the press-service of Ministry of Emergency Situations, Kamaladdin Heydarov praised the level of relations between the two countries in the field of prevention of emergency situations and their consequences. He said that mutual visits and meetings are of great importance to improve collaboration. The Minister informed about the work of the Emergency Situations Ministry and said that there are broad prospects for cooperation between the relevant structures of the two countries.
In turn, General Rashad Mahmood stressed that Pakistan is important to work closely with the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan in the sphere of prevention of emergency situations and their consequences. The guest noted that the structure he represents is interested in strengthening the exchange of experiences in this field.
After the meeting, the delegation got acquainted with the audience at the Control Center and the crisis room MOE operations and activities of the Multimedia Center.
It may be mentioned that 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.
The fundamental building block of the bilateral relationship between Azerbaijan and Pakistan is military cooperation. The sides intend to join efforts to gain access to modern technologies, as well as modernize their potential.
The two sides also focused on the development of economic relations. Trade has also steadily grown between the two nations, with several summits being held on how to improve trade between the two nations.
