Trump Meets with Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif in Oval Office as US-Pakistan Relations Warm

Trump and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are meeting in a closed-door session at the Oval Office.

Washington:

Prior to his scheduled meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal, US President Donald Trump spoke to reporters from the Oval Office, remarking, "they're coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don't know, because we're late."

Trump continued, "We have a great leader coming, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Field Marshal. Field Marshal is a very great guy, and so is the Prime Minister, both, and they're coming, and they may be in this room right now."

According to the White House's official schedule, Trump is planned to have a private meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Oval Office.

Previously on September 23, Sharif had an informal interaction with Trump after a meeting between the US President and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, which 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," Pakistan's Foreign Minister posted on X.

After a period of tense relations, US-Pakistan ties have begun to improve when Islamabad acknowledged US President Donald Trump for his alleged peace intervention during the military tensions with India in May.

Trump asserted that he helped negotiate a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, using trade and tariff threats—a claim that India has strongly rejected.

At first, Pakistan's military leadership indicated that the ceasefire was initiated following a direct proposal from its Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to his Indian counterpart. However, Islamabad later changed its position, crediting the breakthrough to Washington's efforts, even nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The warming relations continued in June when Trump welcomed Pakistan's Army Chief, General Asim Munir, to the White House. The leaders discussed various topics, including trade, economic development, and cryptocurrency. Shortly afterward, the Trump administration announced a new trade agreement with Pakistan, along with plans to assist Islamabad in developing its "massive oil reserves."

Munir visited Washington again in August, during which Pakistan secured a USD 500 million investment from the US, targeted at strengthening the country's critical minerals sector.

Meanwhile, during the day, Trump signed an executive order approving a deal involving the popular video-sharing app TikTok, indicating a move toward American ownership and control.

"This is interesting because I had a very good talk with President Xi, a lot of respect for him. Hopefully, he has a lot of respect for me, too. We talked about TikTok, and he gave us the go-ahead," he stated.

"You know, it's run by American investors and American companies, great ones, great investors, the biggest. The young people really wanted this to happen," he added.

Last week, Trump announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved the TikTok deal for the video-sharing platform to continue operating in the US.

Trump mentioned that the US will have "tight control" over the app, emphasizing that this is a "very good deal" for Washington.