Lachin, May 28, 2025 – The Europe Today: A high-level trilateral summit bringing together Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye; and Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, was held in the city of Lachin. The summit underscored the deepening strategic partnership and multifaceted cooperation among the three nations.
During the meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a Speech, highlighting the importance of regional solidarity, mutual support, and shared commitments to peace, security, and sustainable development.
Speech by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
My dear brother, President Ilham Aliyev,
My dear friend, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,
Dear media representatives,
I am greeting you with most sincere feelings and love.
We are gathered for the second meeting of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Pakistan Trilateral Summit today. The first Summit was held in Astana last year. I would like to thank my brother Ilham Aliyev for this warm hospitality.
At the beginning of my speech, I would like to congratulate our dear Azerbaijan on the occasion of May 28 – Independence Day. I pay tribute to the memory of our martyrs who sacrificed their lives to secure independence for Azerbaijan.
We are three brotherly countries that share common ideals based on mutual love, respect and trust, and benefiting from the same cultural environment. We are further strengthening the ties between our countries, which have a population of approximately 350 million and an economic power of 1.5 trillion dollars. I would like to emphasize that we are behind every step aimed at transforming our alliance into a strategic partnership.
The events taking place in our region are showing clearly how important the solidarity between our countries is. With the liberation of Azerbaijan’s lands, which had remained under occupation for 30 years, we would like to see this region become a center of stability, prosperity and development. I believe that the Lachin Airport, which we inaugurated this morning, will make a significant contribution to the development and integration with the world that the region has long yearned for many years.
We welcomed my dear brother Mr. Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul three days ago. During our meeting, we reviewed partnership issues within the framework of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. We agreed to further strengthen the deep historical and humanitarian relations between Türkiye and Pakistan.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our satisfaction that the fact that the tensions between Pakistan and India have resulted in a ceasefire. I congratulate our brother Shehbaz and the Pakistani officials again for the restrained and determined position they have demonstrated during this process. Our wish is for the declared ceasefire to turn into lasting peace. Türkiye stands ready to make every contribution it can to this end.
My dear brothers, our countries are located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and in an extremely strategic region. We are facing many challenges at the same time, ranging from security threats to economic difficulties, energy and food crises in our geography and beyond. In the face of these difficulties, however, we see the development of our goal of solidarity and joint action as a necessity, not an option.
Today, we are exchanging views with our dear brothers on important issues in order to further advance our trilateral cooperation. Our foreign ministers will carry out the necessary work in the coming period to organize our trilateral cooperation. They will prepare a strong framework reflecting the common vision of our countries, especially in areas such as trade, investment, transport, energy, defense industry and counter-terrorism, which are shaping our common agenda.
As Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Pakistan, we will institutionalize our cooperation by organizing regular trilateral summits and ministerial meetings. We will deepen our defense cooperation and continue our common determination to fight terrorism and cross-border threats. We aim to take joint steps in the areas of trade facilitation, investment promotion and digital transformation.
In the field of transport, which represents a very strategic aspect of our cooperation, we will jointly contribute to projects such as the Development Road, the Middle Corridor and the North-South Transport Corridor. In the fields of culture and education, we will work on projects that will expand mutual contacts, especially between our youth and scientists. We will jointly evaluate opportunities in the fields of energy security, food security and renewable energy.
Inshallah, by implementing ambitious projects in all these areas, we will raise our trilateral cooperation to an even higher level and provide new achievements to our peoples.
My dear brothers, in this era of deepening polarization and growing bloc alignments, we are witnessing the international system increasingly being dragged into a crisis of legitimacy. A clear example of the crisis the international system is experiencing in this regard is Israel’s unstoppable oppression in Palestine and the expansionist policy it continues to pursue. We are determined to continue defending the rights of innocent children and people who are being openly killed in Gaza. I would like to emphasize again that we will resist all attempts to destabilize our region. Our geography is saturated with blood and tears. From here, we call on the whole world to increase pressure on the Israeli government to ensure a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and to deliver uninterrupted and urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza.
At the end of my speech, I would like to express my gratitude again to the people of Azerbaijan led by my brother Ilham Aliyev, especially my brothers from Lachin, for their sincere hospitality.
I greet you again with most sincere feelings and once again congratulate you on May 28 – Independence Day. May Almighty Allah open our path and destiny. May our brotherhood be eternal and our unity sustainable. Thank you and stay well.
