“Caution is warranted by the roller coaster nature of relations in the past, which saw several highs and many lows,” says Maleeha Lodhi.
Big smiles, a red carpet and a thumbs up: the first formal bilateral interaction between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and US President Donald Trump during the early hours of Friday morning was plastered all over the airwaves.
The meeting, which was also attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, was described by the Prime Minister’s Office as being held in a pleasant atmosphere.
However, the meeting itself was closed to the press — a break from President Trump’s usual modus operendi — as he is quite fond of Oval Office photo-ops and there was no press conference either; just a statement issued from Pakistan where the US president was described as a “man of peace” and stressing the need to enhance cooperation in security and intelligence.
With Pak-US ties ‘gradually warming’ in President Trump’s second term, the meeting was closely watched by geopolitical hawks and analysts. Here’s what some had to say about it:
‘Quite surprising’
Author and journalist Zahid Hussain termed the meeting “very significant” for Pakistan, adding that the positive ties came as a “surprise” in the wake of the deterioration in relations with the US over the previous four years.
“It was quite surprising, because the president was supposed to be very close to India,” he said.
According to Hussain, the positive shift began in March, when the president praised Pakistan’s cooperation in arresting the person responsible for killing 13 US service members.
He stated that ties were further bolstered with Washington’s intervention during the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May.
Hussain highlighted that Field Marshal Munir’s meeting with Trump in July was “unprecedented” and that the president “bypassed all the protocols”.
“In the past, we have seen Pakistan army chiefs have been meeting American presidents, but in a different capacity … when they were also president of the country,” he said.
“Certainly there has been some improvement in relations, but what happened yesterday — we don’t know much about it,” he said, adding that no statement or press briefing following the meeting had been issued as yet.
He did, however, point out that the meeting ran long, lasting an hour and 20 minutes instead of the expected 45 minutes.
“The most significant part of it was that along with the prime minister, the army chief was also present there,” he said. “So that signifies that relations with Pakistan are largely dependent on security and intelligence cooperation.”
Highlighting the importance of the military aspect in previous times when the US had been an ally, he said, “I think this is a recognition that the real power lies with the military in Pakistan.”
Highlighting the historically “transactional” relationship between the two countries, particularly with Trump, Hussain added, “What has been the American demand? We don’t know … certainly there’s something more to it.”
‘Remarkable turnaround but caution warranted’
Diplomat Maleeha Lodhi, who has previously served as Pakistan’s Representative to the United Nations, termed the continuing warming of relations between the US and Pakistan a “remarkable turnaround” after ties had plunged to a low during the term of previous US president Joe Biden in the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The meeting has injected greater momentum to the reset of Pakistan-US ties,” she told Dawn.com, adding that the invitation of a Pakistani premier to the White House after six years reflected “renewed US recognition of Pakistan’s geopolitical importance in the region and the Middle East at a time of changing international dynamics”.
“But an assessment of the significance of the White House meeting has to wait for details of what was discussed and which areas the two countries have agreed to cooperate in,” Lodhi added.
“Caution is warranted by the roller coaster nature of relations in the past, which saw several highs and many lows,” she said.
‘Will wait to form opinion’
Senior Dawn correspondent Baqir Sajjad Syed held off on commenting on the meeting between the two leaders.
“There is very little information out there,” he said.
“I will wait to hear from the White House or US State Department before forming any opinion,” he added.
‘Wasn’t a state visit’
Michael Kugelman, an expert on Washington’s relations with South Asian nations, challenged the notion that a “huge protocol” was accorded to Shehbaz and Munir in Washington, DC.
“Don’t agree,” he simply said in a post on X, pointing out that the PM was received by a US military officer and that the delegation received the expected standard motorcade for the drive.
“Protocol was basic. This wasn’t a state visit,” he said.
He recalled Imran Khan’s visit to the White House in 2019, during which the then-army chief General Bajwa, who accompanied him, was “in the background and barely seen”.
“Munir, by contrast, was front and centre today,” he said. “Exactly as one would expect,” he added.
Header image: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif speaks with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Washington DC on 26 September 2025. — TararAttaullah/X
