When Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and Pakistan were developing ties within a trilateral framework involving T\u00fcrkiye, he did more than extend diplomatic courtesy to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, who is representing Pakistan at the 13th UN World Urban Forum in Baku.
\nHe placed Pakistan inside a wider Eurasian conversation, where old alignments are losing warmth and new corridors are acquiring political meaning. It was also a recognition that Islamabad has begun to look beyond crisis management and recover its own strategic value.
\nThere is reason to welcome this shift. Pakistan has stood consistently with Azerbaijan, while Baku has supported Islamabad\u2019s position on Kashmir. T\u00fcrkiye gives this relationship a third pillar: a state with defence-industrial depth and access to European and Middle Eastern theatres.
\nThe triangle, therefore, rests on converging interests, including but not limited to defence cooperation, regional connectivity, energy options, urban governance, and a shared desire to retain room in a fast-changing world.
\nStill, the trade story is less flattering, which is exactly why the Baku opening matters. Pakistan\u2019s bilateral trade with Azerbaijan stood at only $26.05m in 2025, a figure too modest for the scale of the political language now being used. This becomes even more striking when set against official discussions about Azerbaijani investment plans worth up to $2bn in Pakistan.
\nThe base is stronger with T\u00fcrkiye, wherein bilateral trade reached a historic $1.4 billion in 2024, yet Ankara and Islamabad still speak of a $5 billion target because both sides know the relationship is operating below capacity. President Erdo?an has already called for expanding the preferential trade agreement into a freer trading arrangement and reviving the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul freight train.
\nIslamabad has recently explored multiple corridor options with Tajikistan to reduce reliance on a single route. The Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement is also designed to enable cross-border movement while bypassing Afghanistan.
\nLast month, a shipment from Kyrgyzstan reached Karachi through the Khunjerab Pass and Sost dry port, offering a small but telling proof of concept.
\nPakistan deserves credit for broadening its diplomatic field with Azerbaijan, T\u00fcrkiye and Central Asia. It has friends that matter, ports that matter and a location that others increasingly need.
\nThe next test is execution. Trade must rise beyond ceremonial numbers while corridors carry regular cargo rather than occasional proof-of-concept shipments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and Pakistan were developing ties within a trilateral framework involving T\u00fcrkiye, he did more than extend diplomatic courtesy to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, who is representing Pakistan at the 13th UN World Urban Forum in Baku. He placed Pakistan inside a wider Eurasian conversation, where old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n