Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to meet United States President Donald Trump on September 25 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Geo TV reported on Tuesday.Â
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir will also be part of the proposed meeting, which is backed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The agenda of the meeting is likely to span from flood relief in Pakistan, the Pakistan-India situation and regional implications of Israel’s attack on Qatar.
A few months earlier, Asim Munir had a rare one-on-one meeting with President Trump, where the two discussed matters of regional security, counter-terrorism cooperation and defence ties.
That meeting followed Pakistan’s armed conflict with India in May, underscoring the tense backdrop against which Islamabad is recalibrating relations with Washington.
The prospective Shehbaz-Trump engagement coincides with ongoing US-India trade talks, as American trade negotiator Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi to meet his Indian counterpart.
The parallel developments highlight Washington’s balancing act in South Asia, strengthening trade ties with India while cautiously engaging Pakistan on security and humanitarian fronts.
