ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday welcomed a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, hoping that it would open new avenues for trade and regional connectivity.

US President Donald Trump announced that Armenia and Azerbaijan had committed to a lasting peace after decades of conflict as he hosted the leaders of the South Caucasus rivals at a White House signing event.

The development comes as Pakistan, slowly recovering from a macroeconomic crisis under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, looks to capitalize on its geostrategic location to boost transit trade and foreign investment for a sustainable recovery.

“We congratulate President Ilham Aliyev and the people of Azerbaijan on this historic agreement, that reflects wisdom, foresight and sagacity in charting a course for a peaceful future for their region,” Sharif said on X.

“We also appreciate the facilitation role of the United States, under President Donald Trump, in bringing the two sides together and securing an agreement that opens new avenues for trade, connectivity, and regional integration.”

Christian-majority Armenia and Muslim-majority Azerbaijan have feuded for decades over their border and the status of ethnic enclaves within each other’s territories.

The nations went to war twice over the disputed Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured from Armenian forces in a lightning 2023 offensive, sparking the exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians.

The two former Soviet republics “are committing to stop all fighting forever, open up commerce, travel and diplomatic relations and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Trump said at the event.

Sharif said Pakistan stood by the brotherly nation of Azerbaijan at this proud moment of their history.

“This landmark development marks the dawn of a new era of peace, stability, and cooperation in the South Caucasus, a region that has endured decades of conflict and human suffering,” he said.

“It is our hope that this spirit of dialogue will serve as an example for other regions facing protracted conflicts.”

Pakistan and Azerbaijan maintain close ties. In July, Sharif met with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Khankendi on the sidelines of the 17th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit, where the two leaders agreed to boost bilateral trade and investment.

This was Sharif’s third visit to Azerbaijan in 2025. He last traveled to Baku in May as part of a broader push at economic diplomacy with the Central Asian republics, to whom Pakistan has offered access to its southern ports in Karachi and Gwadar.

In July 2024, Azerbaijan announced a $2 billion investment in Pakistan during a visit by President Ilham Aliyev to Islamabad. In September last year, Pakistan signed a contract to supply JF-17 Block III fighter jets to Azerbaijan, marking the deepening of defense cooperation.

KARACHI: Pakistan has begun work on a “National Agri Stack” to build digital infrastructure for its agriculture sector, aiming to boost farmer access to credit, subsidies and markets, the ministry of IT said on Friday.

Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, employing more than a third of the workforce and contributing around a fifth of gross domestic product. The sector faces persistent challenges, however, including low productivity, fragmented landholdings, water scarcity and climate shocks, while farmers often lack formal identification and credit histories needed to access finance.

The Agri Stack initiative, led by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) in collaboration with the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR), the Land Information and Management System (LIMS) and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), seeks to integrate land and farmer data, deliver targeted services and improve transparency in farm support.

In simple terms, the Agri Stack will create a “digital ID and online service hub” for every farmer in Pakistan. It will gather all key information — who the farmer is, what land they own or work on, what crops they grow — into one secure system. This means the government, banks and agri companies can deliver the right help directly to the right farmer, including subsidies, loans, crop insurance, weather updates and market prices.

The system is meant to cut out paperwork, reduce delays, stop resources from going to the wrong people and give farmers better tools to grow and sell their crops.

“The Agri Stack will enable verified farmer identities, land data integration, precision advisory, and efficient delivery of services like subsidies, crop insurance, and credit,” said Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja at a stakeholder consultation in Islamabad, according to a statement from the IT ministry.

“This is the architecture for an inclusive and tech-driven agricultural transformation under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Digital Nation Pakistan, in collaboration with the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).”

LIMS Director General Maj Gen (R) M Ayub Ahsan Bhatti said the platform, also called PAKGROW, would “innovate the agricultural arena of Pakistan by transforming and improving the lives of small farmers and convening policymaking.”

The consultation endorsed forming a steering committee co-chaired by MoITT and MNFSR, a technical working group on data and cybersecurity, and pilot projects over the next 12–18 months. Priority areas include smart input subsidies, weather-indexed crop insurance, credit access through alternative data, and market linkages via LIMS.

Officials said the Agri Stack would combine satellite-driven crop intelligence, digital IDs, trusted payment systems and market platforms to create a “digitally empowered agricultural future.”

If implemented effectively, experts say a national Agri Stack could help Pakistan tackle some of its most entrenched agricultural challenges by giving farmers verified digital identities, streamlining subsidy and credit delivery, and providing timely, data-driven advice on crop management.

Integrating land records, satellite imagery, and market information into a single digital platform could reduce leakages in government support programs, expand financial inclusion for smallholders, improve resilience against climate shocks and connect rural producers more directly to buyers. This would ultimately boost productivity, transparency and rural incomes in a sector that underpins both the economy and national food security.