Sharif, Trump meet at White House amid talk of a reset in US–Pakistan ties

Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif met US president Donald J. Trump at the White House on Thursday, 25 September, in a tightly managed Oval Office encounter, a rare moment of face-to-face diplomacy that underscored efforts by both governments to recalibrate a relationship strained for much of the past decade.

Sharif, 74, was accompanied by Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. The pair was greeted at the West Executive Avenue entrance before being escorted into the Oval Office.

Trump was holding a news conference from the Resolute Desk, as the two leaders entered the Oval Office. Sharif and Gen. Munir were seated on the other side of the Oval Office, the place generally reserved for bilateral meetings.

"We have a great leader coming. We have the prime minister of Pakistan coming and the field marshal. Pakistan's field marshal is a very great guy, and so is the prime minister," Trump told reporters minutes before they entered the Oval Office.

The President joined the visiting dignitaries about 20 minutes later. There was no immediate readout of the meeting between the two leaders.

Sharif is in the United States for a five-day visit centred on the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he spoke at the Climate Summit on 24 September, Wednesday, and is expected to deliver Pakistan’s formal address to the assembly on 26 September, Friday.

For Sharif, the Oval Office visit carried significance beyond its symbolic value. He is the first Pakistani leader to set foot in the White House since Imran Khan’s meeting with President Trump in July 2019.

The encounter also reflected the unusual influence of Pakistan’s military establishment. Earlier this summer, Munir himself was hosted by Trump for lunch, during which he nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize. Islamabad later formalised that nomination, citing Trump’s role in defusing tensions during this year’s confrontation between India and Pakistan.

The visit unfolded against a backdrop of shifting geopolitics.

Pakistan has drawn closer to Saudi Arabia, recently signing a strategic mutual defence agreement on 17 September that pledged each country would treat an attack on the other as a threat to both. At the same time, Islamabad has sought to repair ties with Washington, which frayed after Trump’s first term when he suspended American aid over terrorism concerns.

Yet trade and economic links remain durable. The United States is Pakistan’s largest export market, accounting for $8.33 billion in exports in 2022, and it remains a significant source of foreign direct investment and remittances. In July, the two governments signed a trade agreement that included a contentious 19 per cent tariff on Pakistani imports, as well as US participation in developing Pakistan’s oil reserves.

Photographs released by the Pakistani government showed the leaders and their delegations seated beneath the Oval Office’s gilded portraits, holding a model of the White House.

In another photo, the three men — Trump, Sharif and Munir — stood together for a posed image, with the US President smiling broadly and making his trademark thumbs-up gesture.

From the photographs, Sharif, dressed in a double-breasted navy suit, appeared engaged in conversation, while Munir, in a plain dark suit and patterned tie, listened closely. The Pakistani delegation’s motorcade was seen departing the White House just after 6:15 p.m., capping a visit that lasted less than 90 minutes.

Although details of the discussion remain private, the symbolism resonated. Pakistan, long a problematic partner for Washington, appears once again to be edging back into the US orbit, even as it hedges with regional players from Riyadh to Beijing.

Whether the encounter yields concrete changes remains uncertain. But after a decade marked by aid suspensions, accusations of duplicity and strained counterterrorism cooperation, the image of an American president welcoming a Pakistani prime minister and his top general into the Oval Office was itself a notable reset.

Courtesy: 5wh.com