BILATERAL relations between Pakistan and the US are on a positive trajectory amid the rapidly transforming global politics.
Multipolarity is both advantageous and disadvantageous for sustaining positivity in their cooperation. The great powers’ increasing strategic competition necessitates the middle powers, such as Pakistan, to act cautiously to pursue their objectives in the anarchical international society without compromising their national interests or offending a great power. Indeed, it is a cumbersome task for the policymakers in Islamabad, primarily when its eastern and western neighbors are allied to destabilize it through assisting terrorist organizations to conduct terrorism in Pakistan.
The biggest challenge for the Pakistani ruling elite is to cultivate better strategic cooperation with the US without compromising its strategic economic partnership with China and to further its relations with European nations without obstructing its steady improvement in relations with Russia. It continues to maintain its friendship with Beijing while avoiding being caught in any zero-sum competition between the two leading global powers. The encouraging sign is that in recent months, Islamabad has maintained a delicate balance in its relations with leading international capitals, without sacrificing any of its foreign policy objectives.
The remarkable development in Pakistan’s diplomatic pursuits in 2025 is the improvement in cooperation with the United States, which had deteriorated after the latter’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Riving and sustaining trust between Islamabad and Washington in contemporary global politics is a difficult task. Many Americans are convinced that they failed to accomplish their desired objectives in Afghanistan during the two decades of asymmetrical warfare due to Pakistan. Besides, the anti-China and pro-India lobbies in Washington always portray the China-Pakistan relationship negatively. They were convinced that India was imperative for the US to counter China’s steady rise in Asia. India’s militaristic approach towards neighbouring countries, particularly against Pakistan, has exposed its limits as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean region. Its defeat in a four-day military conflict with Pakistan in May 2025 obliged the US foreign and strategic pundits to reconsider the South Asia policy. The conflict has changed their net assessment of each country’s military capabilities. The Trump Administration recalibrated the US strategic outlook, entailing the re-hyphenation of India and Pakistan and reduced India’s relative salience as a strategic partner to counterweight China.
The Pakistani ruling elite acted promptly and seized the moment by acknowledging and praising President Trump for his role in mediating a ceasefire between Pakistan and India on May 10, 2025 and preventing the nuclear crisis in the region. It also nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to peace in South Asia. Moreover, it endorsed President Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Central to the renewed embrace between Islamabad and Washington is counterterrorism and economic cooperation. Pakistan arrested and handed over to the US the ISIS-K leader, Mohammad Sharifullah, who was orchestrating the attack on Kabul airport’s main Abbey gate on August 26, 2021, killing nearly 200 people, including 13 American soldiers. It helped in resetting bilateral ties. President Trump told a joint session of Congress in March 2025, “Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.” He added, “And I want to thank, especially, the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster.”
The US companies’ willingness to invest in Pakistan’s mineral sector and offshore oil reserves to boost bilateral trade. On July 25, 2025, Islamabad finalized a vital trade deal with Washington, which cut tariffs on Pakistani products from 29 percent to 19 percent. On September 8, 2025, the United States announced a $500 million investment in Pakistan’s critical minerals sector. The Board of the US Exim Bank recently approved a $1.25 billion loan for the Reko Diq Mining Company, Pakistan’s most significant discovery to date, located in Balochistan.
The arc of the bilateral relationship has consistently bent toward greater convergence since the beginning of Trump 2.0. Among the most potent indicators of this relationship is President Trump’s confidence in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the exponential growth in bilateral trade in 2025, which has reached $13.28 billion, and the fact that tariffs on Pakistan remain the lowest in South Asia. The revival of strategic trust enshrined in both sides’ commitment to increase counterterrorism cooperation and the recent US Congress approval of Pakistan’s request for a $686 million Foreign Military Sale (FMS) covering F-16 hardware, software upgrades and sustainment support. To conclude, the recurring influence of Pakistan in the US Asian strategic calculations and the Trump Administration’s viewing of South Asia through the traditional India-Pakistan hyphenation are remarkable achievements of Islamabad’s diplomatic corps. Indeed, its sustainability contributes constructively to the country’s economic growth and confirms a positive role in the community of nations.
—The writer is Prof at the School of Politics and IR, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
