The second trilateral summit between Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan, held in the last week of May in Lachin and coinciding with Azerbaijan’s Independence Day, is an ideal showcase of a new emergent “flexible geometry” in international politics, where states build bespoke strategic partnerships outside great power structures.

This enables nations to create way more efficient, tailor-made frameworks that directly address their specific regional challenges and shared aspirations without the constraints of traditional bloc politics or patron-client dynamics.

The choice of Lachin as the summit venue is a matter of great significance for all three states. 

Lachin, liberated from three decades of Armenian occupation and now home to a brand-new high-altitude international airport that President Reccep Tayip Erdogan helped open that very morning, serves as a living testament to what these three nations collectively stand for: the triumph of territorial integrity over occupation, the transformation of former conflict zones into connectivity hubs, and the tangible results of alignment cooperation. 

For Azerbaijan, Lachin represents sovereignty restored and development flourishing where occupation once reigned. For Türkiye, it embodies the success of its own military advancement and fraternal support that helped enable this liberation. 

And for Pakistan, it resonates deeply as a mirror to its own similar challenges, making the gleaming new airport not just infrastructure but a material promise that patience, solidarity, and legitimate resistance can turn the conflict zones into gateways of prosperity.

Welcoming President Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Lachin, President Ilham Aliyev captured the essence of this alignment, noting that the three nations are bound by “shared history, culture, and values” that manifest in rejoicing in each other’s triumphs and providing unwavering support during crises, a pattern proven when Türkiye and Pakistan stood firmly with Azerbaijan from the first days of the 44-day War in 2020. 

Just as Azerbaijan has reciprocated during their moments of challenge, creating a trilateral partnership where the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and justice are not mere rhetorical tools but operational codes that guide real-world action.

“Yesterday we wanted peace, today we want peace and tomorrow we want peace,” Sharif emphasised at the summit, while acknowledging the harsh realities that make peace elusive. 

Pakistan alone, according to Prime Minister Sharif, has lost 90,000 lives and $150 billion to terrorism. These figures underscore why security cooperation remains central to this trilateral partnership. 

United by shared experiences 

All three nations bring hard-won expertise to this alignment, and the convergence of this shared experience in security issues – Pakistan’s decades-long counter-terrorism operations, Türkiye’s resolution of the PKK terror campaign, and Azerbaijan’s military success in liberating occupied territories – creates a security partnership based on proven capabilities. 

That is why both Azerbaijan and Pakistan praised Türkiye’s recent breakthrough with the PKK, with President Aliyev calling President Erdogan’s leadership in resolving this long-standing challenge “an example of leadership and determination” that benefits regional peace.

Pointing out that in a world of crises “our goal of solidarity and joint action” is “a necessity, not an option”, President Erdogan described the trio as “three brotherly countries… sharing common ideals” with a combined population of about 350 million and a $1.5 trillion economy, stressing that every step is aimed at transforming this alliance “into a strategic partnership.”

Moving from these foundational principles to concrete outcomes, the summit produced substantial commitments across multiple sectors. 

The three nations committed to deepening cooperation across several key areas: trade and investment facilitation, transport connectivity through projects like the Middle Corridor and North-South Transport Corridor, energy infrastructure – including renewable energy exports, defenve industry cooperation and joint military exercises – and coordinated positions in international forums from the UN to the newly joined D-8, where Azerbaijan gained unanimous membership with Turkish and Pakistani support. 

President Erdogan also outlined a comprehensive framework for institutionalising the partnership through regular trilateral summits and ministerial meetings. 

Deepening cooperation

The summit also revealed ambitious plans for cooperation in emerging technologies. 

President Ilham Aliyev specifically identified artificial intelligence, digital innovations, and space technologies as new frontiers for trilateral collaboration, signalling the partnership's forward-looking agenda beyond traditional sectors.

This systematic approach transforms ad-hoc cooperation into structured engagement with specific deliverables in each sector. The defence cooperation is already delivering concrete results that extend beyond joint military drills, that enhance interoperability between the armed forces of all three nations. 

The success of Turkish drone technology in modern conflicts has attracted Pakistani interest, while Türkiye’s Kaan fifth-generation fighter aircraft programme offers opportunities for technology transfer and joint production. 

In February 2025, Türkiye and Pakistan signed 24 cooperation agreements across various sectors, including a joint declaration on ‘Deepening, Diversifying, and Institutionalising the Strategic Partnership’ and a memorandum of understanding on air force electronic warfare cooperation. 

In 2024, Azerbaijan signed a $1.6 billion agreement with Pakistan for JF-17C (Block III) single-engine multirole fighter jets. By September 2024, it was announced that “the JF-17 jets have already been integrated into the arsenal of Azerbaijan’s air force,” marking a milestone in Pakistan-Azerbaijan defence technology transfer. 

In the future, these fighter jets could also be equipped with Turkish air-to-air missiles.

The economic dimension of this partnership is also taking concrete shape. Azerbaijan has invested over $20 billion in Türkiye’s economy and is now preparing to invest an initial $2 billion in Pakistan. 

The energy dimension of this partnership is also evolving. President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan-Türkiye cooperation has already “changed the energy map of not only our region but also the wider geography,” with both nations playing crucial roles in European energy security. 

The summit emphasised expanding this cooperation to include alternative energy production and export, with Pakistan’s integration into these networks through multimodal cargo routes potentially creating new energy corridors from the Caspian Sea to South Asia.

The Lachin summit revealed a partnership that has moved from solidarity to structure. With concrete investments, military cooperation, and institutional elements, Ankara, Baku and Islamabad are writing new rules for regional cooperation and crafting their own cooperative geometry. 

In an era when the international order increasingly fails to deliver security or prosperity, the Lachin summit shows that nations can build their own frameworks, tailored to their specific needs and shared principles, creating modes of cooperation that may prove more resilient than the crumbling architectures they bypass.