President of the United States (US) Donald Trump hosted Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal General Asim Munir at the White House’s Oval Office in Washington DC, during the early hours of Friday morning.
US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after the meeting said, adding that the meeting, which lasted more than one hour, was held in a pleasant atmosphere.
Speaking during the meeting, the premier said the US leader’s bold, courageous, and decisive actions had helped facilitate the ceasefire between Pakistan and India, thereby averting what he called a potential “major catastrophe” in South Asia.
Discussing the situation in the Middle East, PM Shehbaz hailed President Trump’s efforts to bring about an immediate end to the war in Gaza, especially his initiative to invite key leaders of the Muslim world to New York, earlier this week, for a comprehensive exchange of views for the restoration of peace in the Middle East, in particular, Gaza and the West Bank.
He also thanked President Trump for the tariff arrangement that was concluded between Pakistan and the US earlier this year, expressing the confidence that under President Trump’s leadership, the Islamabad-Washington DC partnership would be further strengthened to the mutual benefit of both countries.
Shehbaz Sharif invited US Companies to invest in Pakistan’s agriculture, IT, mines and minerals and energy sectors.
Discussing regional security, including counter-terrorism cooperation, the Prime Minister thanked President Trump for his public endorsement of Pakistan’s role in counter-terrorism, stressing the need to further enhance cooperation in security and intelligence.
Minutes before the meeting, the US president spoke to the media, calling PM Shehbaz and Field Marshal Munir “great” people. “We’ve got the prime minister of Pakistan coming and the field marshal … [he’s] a great, great guy and so is the prime minister, both,” he said.
The first formal bilateral interaction between the two leaders came six years after former prime minister Imran Khan met President Trump during the latter’s first term in July 2019.