Trump to meet Pakistan PM Sharif in Washington; to sign executive orders amid buzz over TikTok deal

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is set to engage in high-stakes bilateral meetings on Thursday, including a closed-door session with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Oval Office, according to Trump’s public schedule released by the White House.

Sharif will arrive in Washington after attending the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Sharif addressed the UN Climate Summit on Wednesday. He expressed caution about Pakistan’s accumulating debt and noted that it was not a viable solution to global challenges. This casts a shadow over his claims that Islamabad is taking ‘concrete action’ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

On Tuesday, Sharif also had an informal exchange with Trump following a meeting between the US President and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, which also included Pakistan.

“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,” the Pakistan Foreign Minister stated in a post on X.

According to the schedule, Trump will also sign executive orders before meeting with Sharif, including the potential finalisation of the TikTok security deal.

On Monday, the White House announced that the deal to secure TikTok’s operations in the US will be signed by Trump later this week, ensuring the popular social media platform operates under Washington’s stringent oversight.

During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that TikTok will be majority-owned by American investors and managed by a board with extensive national security and cybersecurity expertise, with Oracle serving as its trusted security provider.

Leavitt detailed that Oracle will independently monitor the safety and data security of all US user data, which will be stored on Oracle-operated servers in the United States, safeguarded from foreign surveillance or interference, particularly from China.

“The president will be signing the deal, the official deal, later this week at some point. Under the terms of this deal, TikTok will be owned by a majority of American investors and controlled by a board of directors with extensive national security and cybersecurity credentials,” she said.

Earlier on Friday, Trump stated that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved the TikTok deal for the video-sharing platform to continue operating in the US.

Prior to this, Trump and Xi Jinping had a telephonic conversation during which they discussed various issues, including the Chinese app TikTok, which faces a threat of being banned after the Biden administration passed legislation to force the platform to divest itself of its ownership by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

Shortly after Trump’s conversation with Xi Jinping, ByteDance announced that it would proceed with the necessary work to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US.

“ByteDance will advance related work in accordance with the requirements of Chinese law, allowing TikTok U.S. to continue serving American users well,” the statement read.

The legislation, which was passed in April 2024, aimed to ban the app as of January 19, but the Trump administration has not yet enforced it.

The US is eager to strike a deal with China that allows US investors to have more control of TikTok.

According to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which quoted people familiar with the deal, the proposed agreement between Beijing and Washington is set to see a group of American investors control 80 per cent of TikTok, while Chinese firms, including ByteDance, will control the remaining 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, Trump will begin his day with engagements involving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (ANI)