Islamabad:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif holds 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 tape.
According to diplomatic sources, the prime minister will briefly travel to Washington from New York, where he attends the Session at the UN General Assembly for the meeting with President Trump.
This will be the first meeting between the US president and Pakistani Prime Minister of the White House since July 2019 when the then Prime Minister Imran Khan traveled to Washington and met President Trump.
Trump’s successor President Joe Biden had completely ignored Pakistan and never even talked to any of the prime ministers on the phone, so much less to invite them to the White House.
Since President Trump took office in January, however, there has been a dramatic and unexpected shift in the relationship between Pakistan and the United States.
The upcoming Trump-Shehbaz meeting comes on the basis of a noticeable thaw in the relationship between Islamabad and Washington. In June of this year, Trump held a rare one-to-one meeting with the Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, in the White House, a signal that the Biden administration’s frosted approach had given way to Trump’s more transactional but open commitment style with Pakistan.
Diplomatic observers see Shehbaz-Trump Huddle as a continuation of this reset. “The optics of the Army Chief’s meeting in June were significant. This meeting institutionalizes that opening,” said a senior Pakistani official who was familiar with the process, The Express Pakinomist.
The Trump administration has also calibrated its ties to India, where Washington became increasingly frustrated by New Delhi’s trading barriers and Moscow tilt in the wake of the Ukraine war.
The recent tribes in the US-India band have opened a window of opportunities for Pakistan to project itself as a useful partner, especially about regional security and terrorism.
Islamabad officials believe that the meeting will focus bilateral ties, regional and international issues, including Afghanistan, CounterTrorismism collaboration and trading opportunities.
However, analysts warn that although Trump The White House seems to be engaging Islamabad remains the reset tentative.
The Prime Minister returns to New York on the same day to continue his Unga engagement.
