Lahore: Pakistan signed framework agreement with Azerbaijan for procurement of LNG on flexible terms. Signing of agreement between Pakistan LNG Limited and Azeri Company SOCAR here was witnessed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Shehbaz Sharif said life of this agreement is one year which is extendable to one more year. He said under agreement, Azerbaijan will offer one cargo of LNG each month and it will be up to Pakistan to either accept cargo or not. He said there will be no financial penalty if Pakistan does not accept cargo.

He termed agreement major milestone in fraternal relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan. He especially thanked President of Azerbaijan for playing a pivotal role in this agreement.

Alluding to his recent productive and fruitful discussions with President of Azerbaijan, he said we have given approval to Azeri airline to land in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. This is big step forward to promote tourism and investment and exchange of delegations between two countries.

 Shehbaz Sharif said an Azeri delegation of horticulture experts is also arriving in Pakistan today on his invitation. He said we want to learn from their expertise to make landscape of Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore as beautiful as that of Baku.

He also touched upon matter of recent increase in power tariff saying it was done so under agreement reached with IMF. He however clarified that this increase will not burden about 63 percent of total domestic consumers. He said 31 percent of consumers have also been given partial subsidy.

 Ambassador of Azerbaijan said that both countries are deepening their cooperation in diverse fields including energy, defence, IT and transport. He said two sides are also negotiating preferential trade agreement, expressing confidence that they will be successful in this regard as well.