Pakistan to consider establishing ties with Armenia: Foreign Minister Dar

By Islamuddin Sajid and Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL (AA) - Pakistan will "consider" establishing diplomatic ties with Armenia, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday after a phone call with Armenia's top diplomat Ararat Mirzoyan.

“I held a cordial conversation” with Mirzoyan and “agreed to consider establishing diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Armenia,” Dar said on US social media company X.

Pakistan has not established diplomatic ties with Armenia due to the latter’s occupation of Karabakh, a territory of Azerbaijan, with which it enjoys close ties. Baku and Yerevan, however, are now close to resolving their decades-long dispute.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization and demarcation talks.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after separatist forces in the region surrendered.

This March, Baku and Yerevan reached a consensus on a peace agreement, and earlier this month, leaders of the two former Soviet states signed a US-brokered deal aimed at ending the conflict, during a meeting with President Donald Trump.