Pakistani leadership meets Trump in Washington after six years

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir held their first official meeting with US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office. The meeting was a significant diplomatic engagement between Islamabad and Washington after a gap of six years.

Shehbaz Sharif received a red-carpet welcome upon his arrival at Andrews Air Base, where a senior US Air Force official received him. Field Marshal Asim Munir accompanied the Prime Minister throughout the visit.

Photographs released after the meeting showed the Pakistani leaders alongside Trump, who posed with his trademark thumbs-up gesture. The discussion lasted nearly one hour and 20 minutes. Notably, no journalists were invited into the Oval Office for this engagement.

The meeting, originally set for 4:30 pm Washington time (1:30 am PST), was delayed by about half an hour as the US President wrapped up the signing of executive orders and spoke briefly with reporters. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended the session.

Images from the White House press pool captured Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir waiting in the Oval Office while Trump concluded his prior engagements.

Read more: All eyes on White House as PM Shehbaz, Trump set for meeting today

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Trump praised the visiting delegation. “We have the Prime Minister of Pakistan coming and the Field Marshal Pakistan. 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, I don't know, because we are late,” he said .

This was the first bilateral contact between the two governments since July 2019, when then-Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Trump during his first term