By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Friday met Pakistan Premier Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir at the White House, praised them as “great leaders” during talks at the White House.
Trump on Thursday met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Asim Munir in the Oval Office on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Trump lauded US-Pakistan ties and praised the visitors as “great leaders” ahead of their closed-door meeting.
He reportedly kept Sharif waiting for an hour before the meeting at the White House, even as the talks were described as a sign of improving ties between Washington and Islamabad.
Trump addressed members of the media from the Oval Office, stated “They are coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don’t know, because we are late,” ahead of his meeting with Sharif and Munir.
He said, “We have a great leader coming—the Prime Minister of Pakistan—and the Field Marshal. The Field Marshal is a very great guy, and so is the Prime Minister. They’re both great, and they may be in this room right now.”
“I don’t know because we’re late, and I said maybe they’d like to join them. They actually may be somewhere in the beautiful Oval Office,” he said.
Sharif is among senior officials from eight Islamic nations who met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week .This marks the Pakistani Prime Minister’s first visit to the White House.
Pakistan Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, said in a post on X “Informal exchange followed the dialogue between President Trump and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, including Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz and Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar joined President Donald Trump in the discussion”.
Trump referred to Munir as a “great guy.”
The meeting followed a recent trade deal between the US and Pakistan and came shortly after Trump and Sharif briefly met at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
US-Pakistan ties improved after Islamabad gave credit to President Trump for ‘calling a truce’ during the conflict with India in May.
The relations improved when Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir, was invited to the White House in June.
Munir visited Washington in August and secured a USD 500 million investment from the US for Pakistan’s critical minerals sector.
