Cloud over Trump-Sharif meet, White House yet to release official photo; Pak PMO says meet closed to press

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) hosted the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Asim Munir at the Oval Office in Washington.

However, there appears to be a cloud over the meeting with the White House failing to release any official pictures or video of the meeting. The White House usually follows protocol by releasing pictures or showcasing live video of the President’s meeting with foreign counterparts.

#Trump meets #Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif & Failed Marshal Munir at the White House pic.twitter.com/71qYjOaT9J

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Earlier in the day, US President had hosted the Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and that meeting was followed by a live joint briefing. The meeting between Sharif, Munir and Trump however was only posted by official Pakistan social media accounts.

According to the Pak PMO, US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present. It added that the meeting was held in a pleasant atmosphere. The Pak PMO claimed that the meeting was closed to the press and was delayed by nearly 30 minutes while the US President signed executive orders.

The White House press pool pictures, however, did show Munir and Sharif waiting at the White House as the US President completed his engagements. The visit, the first formal bilateral interaction between the two leaders, comes six years after former premier Imran Khan met Trump during the latter’s first term in July 2019.

Shehbaz Sharif is in the US to attend the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

Earlier, in a veiled reference to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while addressing the Second G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New York on Thursday, underlined the need for global unity against terrorism and called for urgent reforms in multilateral institutions, including the United Nations.

“A persistent threat to development is that perennial disruptor of peace – terrorism. It is imperative that the world display neither tolerance nor accommodation to terrorist activities. Given the extensive networking amongst terrorists, those who act against them on any front render a larger service to the international community as a whole,” Jaishankar said without naming Pakistan.

Meanwhile, South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman pointed out that the resurgence of US-Pakistan ties has emerged as a significant “tension point” in India-US relations, particularly in light of recent geopolitical frictions between Washington and New Delhi.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Kugelman noted that while India has long accepted the US-Pakistan friendship, including military aspects, the rapid resurgence has amplified existing frictions.

“As we know, India quite some time ago accepted the fact that the US and Pakistan would have a friendly relationship, including a friendly military relationship. This resurgence in US-Pakistan ties has become a tension point in US-India relations, just because there are so many other bad things happening in US-India relations and also the US-Pakistan relationship has really strengthened very quickly in very big ways,” Kugelman said. (ANI)