Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to travel to Washington to meet President Trump on Thursday
Shehbaz had an "informal exchange" with Trump on Tuesday after a dialogue between the President and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel from New York to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump on Thursday, as the two sides made a renewed push to reset their bilateral relations.
Shehbaz, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, had an "informal exchange" with Trump on Tuesday after a dialogue between the President and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, including Pakistan, the foreign ministry said.
The Prime Minister will briefly travel from New York to Washington to meet President Trump, The Express Tribune newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources.
He will return to New York on the same day to continue his UNGA engagements, it added.
It 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, completely ignored Pakistan during his tenure and never even talked to any of the prime ministers on the phone, let alone inviting them to the White House.
However, since President Trump took office in January, there has been a dramatic and unexpected shift in the Pakistan-US relationship.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar attended a meeting of Arab-Islamic leaders hosted by President Trump, alongside leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Türkiye, and Indonesia.
After the meeting, Shehbaz exchanged pleasantries with Trump. A handshake and a candid conversation marked their interaction.
The Trump-Shehbaz meeting on Thursday comes against the backdrop of a noticeable thaw in relations between Islamabad and Washington.
In June, Trump held a rare one-on-one meeting with Pakistan Army chief 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 paper.
Officials in Islamabad believe the meeting will focus on bilateral ties, regional and international issues, including Afghanistan, counterterrorism cooperation, and trade opportunities.
Analysts, however, said that while Trump appears keen to engage Islamabad, the reset remains tentative.
