Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir, are likely to meet US President Donald Trump next week. The two Pakistani leaders will hold talks with Trump on September 25 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Pakistan’s Khyber News reported, quoting sources.
According to the report, the agenda of the meeting will include discussions on issues ranging from Pakistan’s devastating floods to the fallout of the Israeli strike on Qatar. The diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad are also expected to be addressed in this high-level dialogue, the report said.
There was no official word on the visit from Inter-Services Public Relations or Pakistan’s embassy in Washington so far, but the report came on the heels of Asim Munir’s two back-to-back Washington visits.
US-Pak Ties
After years of diplomatic shunning, US-Pakistan ties saw warmth when Donald Trump welcomed Pakistan’s army chief Munir at the White House in June and discussed trade, economic development, and cryptocurrency. Days later, in July, the Trump administration announced a trade deal with Pakistan and said Washington would help Islamabad develop its “massive oil reserves”.
The US-Pakistan ties saw a thaw after Islamabad gave Trump credit for his so-called peace intervention during the military conflict with India in May. The US President has said that he has helped in brokering a truce between two nuclear-armed Asian neighbours using trade and tariff threats, a claim India vehemently denies.
Islamabad also initially said the ceasefire was reached after its Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) approached his Indian counterpart with the proposal, but later gave the credit for the breakthrough to Washington.
Munir returned to Washington again in August ahead of the retirement ceremony of outgoing Centcom Commander General Michael E Kurilla and the change of command ceremony for Admiral Brad Cooper. During the same trip, he met Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.
Recently, Islamabad managed to secure a $500 million investment from the United States that will focus on Pakistan’s critical minerals sector.
