Pakistan “fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus”, the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday.

“Turkey has always stood by the just cause of the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and you have always maintained your stance loud and clear, and similarly, Pakistan fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus and fully stands by Turkey on this cause in an unwavering fashion,” he said.

He made the comments during a joint press conference held with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the latter visiting Pakistan’s capital Islamabad as part of a tour of Asia.

“You have also led from the front speaking for the problems and standing for the rights of oppressed people, be it the people of Gaza, Palestine, or Kashmir,” he added.

“And when you speak, not only millions of people in the Islamic world hear you very attentively, but the globe hears you when you speak.”

Erdogan thanked Sharif for his support for the north, saying, “Pakistan’s support for the just cause of the Turkish Cypriots is extremely meaningful to us.”

He added that he had agreed with Sharif to increase the two countries’ efforts to increase trade between them to $5 billion (€4.8bn) per year, and said he would encourage Turkish businesses to “do more in Pakistan”.

Sharif’s comments are the latest episode in Pakistan’s flirtation with recognising the north, with the north’s ‘parliament speaker’ Zorlu Tore having said last year that the country was showing “very close interest and concern”.

He then added that “our future is definitely bright” on the matter.

In 2023, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had met Sharif’s predecessor Anwaar ul Haq Kakar in Uzbekistan.

Tatar said “around ten thousand citizens of the brotherly nation of Pakistan live in the TRNC,” and added that he wants “to increase close relations and cooperation” with the country.

He added that the Turkish Cypriots and Pakistan have “historical ties of culture and brotherhood” with one another.

Pakistan, alongside Bangladesh, initially recognised the north when it declared independence in 1983, but both countries withdrew their recognition just three days after the declaration after the passage of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 541.

Resolution 541 declared the north’s independence to be “legally invalid”, while also reaffirming resolution 367, passed in 1975, which called upon all UN member states to “respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-alignment of the Republic of Cyprus.”

Pakistan was one of the UN Security Council’s ten non-permanent members in 1983 and voted against resolution 541 but withdrew its recognition after it passed. Jordan abstained from voting, while the other 13 members all voted in favour.