Azerbaijan, Turkey, Pakistan: Three Muslim countries on a mission

Azerbaijan has made very clear its desire to strengthen cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan in a myriad of fields, including "science, technology, culture, economy, and military" when it signed The Islamabad Declaration last week.

“The resolution of the Armenia – Azerbaijan conflict, the opening of regional transportation and communication channels that had been blocked due to this conflict, and the proposals to build a wider regional cooperation platform in the South Caucasus provide more opportunities for the future of Azerbaijan’s relations with Turkey and Pakistan,” stated Huseynov.

Turkey has played a key role in Azerbaijan’s victory against Armenia in the once disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, what with it providing the country with tangible and abstract support in every field, whether it be Ankara’s game-changing UAVs, or the endorsing statements made on every international platform by its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pakistan, for its part, began forging close ties with Baku in the 1990s, when Islamabad became one of the first administrations to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union.

Huseynov notes that the trilateral cooperation platform is of critical importance in Azerbaijan’s foreign policies.

“Not only does this allow Azerbaijan to confront security challenges more assertively, but also provides a unique opportunity to revive the country’s economy that has been affected by the fall of oil prices and global economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he writes.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi met in the Pakistani capital on Jan. 13.

The trio agreed to deepen trilateral ties at the second round of Trilateral Dialogue and issued "The Islamabad Declaration," vowing support to each other in disputes concerning Nagorno-Karabakh, Cyprus, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Reiterating the human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the three sides called to take steps in disputed region in accordance with the relevant U.N. Security Council Resolutions.

They agreed to boost their joint efforts in combating Islamophobia, discrimination and persecution of Muslim minorities, in particular at the regional and international fora.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, expressed gratitude to Turkey and Pakistan for their unwavering support in the conflict against Armenia.

“These friendly countries condemned the occupation, attacks and war crimes of Armenia, supported the discussion based on our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and loudly declared the recognition of the borders of states and the establishment of justice in the international arena. We highly appreciate this principled position,” Bayramov said at the press conference.

Currently, there are no direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan. The two countries plan to launch a non-stop flight in the near future, in a move that is seen as a significant step for mutual ties.