ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will hold a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, in what officials describe as part of a renewed push to reset Pakistan-US ties.
According to diplomatic sources, the prime minister will briefly travel to Washington from New York, where he is attending the session of the UN General Assembly, for the meeting with President Trump.
This will be the first meeting between the US President and the Pakistani prime minister at the White House since July 2019 when then prime minister Imran Khan travelled to Washington and met President Trump.
Trump’s successor President Joe Biden had completely ignored Pakistan and never even spoke to any of the prime ministers on the phone, let alone inviting them over at the White House.
However, since President Trump took office in January, there has been a dramatic and unexpected shift in the Pakistan-US relationship.
The upcoming Trump-Shehbaz meeting comes against the backdrop of a noticeable thaw in relations between Islamabad and Washington. In June this year, Trump held a rare one-on-one meeting with Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, at the White House, a signal that the Biden administration’s frosty approach had given way to Trump’s more transactional but open style of engagement with Pakistan.
Diplomatic observers see the Shehbaz-Trump huddle as a continuation of that reset. “The optics of the army chief’s meeting in June were significant. This meeting institutionalises that opening,” a senior Pakistani official familiar with the process told The Express Tribune.
The Trump administration has also been recalibrating its ties with India, with Washington growing increasingly frustrated over New Delhi’s trade barriers and Moscow tilt in the wake of the Ukraine war.
The recent strains in US-India ties have opened a window of opportunity for Pakistan to project itself as a useful partner, particularly on regional security and counterterrorism.
Officials in Islamabad believe the meeting will focus bilateral ties, regional and international issues including Afghanistan, counterterrorism cooperation, and trade opportunities.
Analysts caution, however, that while the Trump White House appears keen to engage Islamabad, the reset remains tentative.
The prime minister will return to New York on the same day to continue his UNGA engagements.
