Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a phone call with his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, marking the first direct ministerial contact between the two countries. Both sides agreed to explore the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, according to statements released after the conversation on 29 August. Islamabad has never recognised Armenia, aligning itself with Azerbaijan during the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Dar said the resolution of that conflict had removed a principal obstacle and that Pakistan would now look "positively" at fast-tracking the normalisation process.