Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. It was a little beyond sideline summitteering, for it took place in Washington, in the White House, as opposed to at New York, at the UN general Assembly, which Mr Trump had already addressed, and which Mr Sharif was due to address. Mr Sharif and Mr Trump had just met, at the latter’s meeting with the heads of Islamic states over the Gaza crisis. This was not just Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Sharif, but his second meeting with Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, who was also present. No announcement emerged from the meeting, as was generally expected. The possibilities were of some announcement related to minerals and mining, or oil and gas exploration, but it seems that these did not come unsewn discussion. The other subjects were weighty enough for the leaders to remain Winged for the duration of the meeting. They included the Gaza situation, ties with India and the recent military agreement with Saudi Arabia.
In the first meeting of a Pakistani PM with a US President in five years, the ice has been broken that was especially noticeable duin the Biden Presidency, when he had declined even to speak to the then {M, Imran Khan, on the phone. However, it should not be assumed that the USA has broken with India, though the warmth has certainly gone out of that relationship. However, Mr Trump may meet at the Quad Summit, which India is hosting, either at the end of the year, or in the beginning of 2025. Rather than get any hopes up. Mr Sharif should focus on how Mr Trump brushed off Mr Khan and Mr Modi after he felt like it.
Mr Sharif should also account himself lucky that he was only obliged to wait because Mr Trump’s previous engagement, `the signing of a memo on domestic political violence and a press talk, ran overtime. He was spared both the bullying over rare earth rights that Polish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got in his first visit to the White House, and the hectoring on human rights that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa got during his visit. Indeed, he was spared any of the gratuitous insults Mr Trump has earned the reputation of delivering, and for that, he could count himself lucky. The meeting has thus proved a brick in the edifice that is lowly being re-erected after the US realization that it was mistaken to place all its eggs in the Indian basket.
