ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Azerbaijan agreed on Thursday to expand bilateral cooperation in the fields of trade, gas and electricity besides introducing road and air connectivity.

This was decided at a meeting of the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Joint Commission (PAJC) held here on Thursday. The meeting was co-chaired by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, and Yavar Jamalov, Minister for Defence Industry of Azerbaijan.

Over the last two days, meetings were held between experts of the two countries on a number of issues, especially trade and commerce, energy, agriculture, education, science and technology and other matters of mutual interest.

At the end of the meeting, a protocol was signed by the two countries.

Both sides decided to enhance business-to-business contacts through a Joint Business Council which is scheduled to meet later this year.

They also agreed to facilitate talks and subsequent signing of MoU between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and the Pakistan State Oil Company (PSO) and other nominated entities of Pakistan under the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) for trading crude oil, refined oil products, LNG and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as well as joint development of new facilities for their import. SOCAR will execute activities through the SOCAR Trading S.A, which is SOCAR’s wholly-owned affiliate.

During his stay here, Azerbaijan’s Defence Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov met President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanvir Hussain.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016