SINCE the lunch meeting between President Donald Trump and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s and the US’s diplomatic engagements have been optimistic.
This meeting, which was a significant step towards improving relations, set the stage for potential diplomatic breakthroughs. The breakthrough of the positive shift in the engagement is awaited. Indeed, warming ties are better than past diplomatic frictions.
President Trump’s reiteration that he facilitated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan during the escalation of the post-Pahalgam attack military standoff invalidated India’s claim that Pakistan approached it for a truce. It not only exposed the limits of the Indian armed forces but also jolted India’s superiority mindset. Trump has hyphenated Pakistan with India, ‘making it clear that any potential trade deal will also depend on both countries’ willingness to adopt a non-confrontational posture toward each other and honour the ceasefire.’ Besides, President Trump’s offer to mediate the chronic Kashmir dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad, a proposal well received in Pakistan, has significantly altered the dynamics of the situation. Notably, while third-party mediation is acceptable to Islamabad, it is not to India in resolving the Kashmir dispute.
Although there are many areas in which Pakistan and the US cooperate constructively, the evolving international strategic environment is not conducive to reinvigorating their strategic partnership. Currently, instead of Pakistan, India is more attractive to the American strategic pundits. Therefore, they are facilitating India’s military buildup and questioning Pakistan’s military modernization. Since last year, despite knowing Pakistan’s ballistic missile program’s objective and potential, the American leading security analysts have been publishing concocted analyses about the American heartland’s vulnerability to Pakistan’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. While contradicting their fictitious findings, Pakistan officially announced that it has no plan to develop intermediate and intercontinental missiles.
The Pakistani ruling elite needs to focus on shared interests with the US without compromising its autonomy in constituting and advancing its strategic interests with China. Although it’s a tightrope walk, one can still be optimistic about a better outcome while dealing with competing great powers. Hence, while dealing with the US, the Pakistani policy makers act rationally instead of emotionally and convince Americans to understand Pakistan and stop viewing it through the lens of India, China or Afghanistan.
Sino-US strategic competition in the international setting signifies India’s significance in the Americans’ strategic calculation. The US replaced the term “Asia-Pacific” with the new nomenclature, “Indo-Pacific,” to solidify the Indo-US threshold strategic alliance. Indo-Pacific is an integrated geostrategic arena that connects the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean into a single entity. In June 2019, during the previous Trump Administration, the Department of Defense published the Indo-Pacific Strategy Report: Preparedness, Partnerships and Promoting a Networked Region.
India is an essential member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, commonly referred to as the Quad, a strategic forum that includes the United States, Japan and Australia and India, Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are generally referred to as the I2U2, involving diplomatic and military arrangements. Unlike the Asia-Pacific architecture, the Indo-Pacific construct, coupled with the Quad and I2U2, enables India to rise above its long-labeled middle-power status and demonstrate its great power credentials. The increasing significance of India, due to its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Quad and I2U2 in the region, impacts the military security of the smaller littoral states in the Indian Ocean Region.
Since the signing of the Malabar Naval Exercise Agreement in 1992, the United States has been encouraging and assisting India to play a decisive role in the Indo-Pacific region, which has emerged as the world’s geoeconomic and geostrategic epicenter. Furthermore, Washington facilitates New Delhi’s establishment of its supremacy in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region which is unacceptable to Pakistan. The India-US threshold alliance is a reality. However, there are still various areas where Islamabad and Washington could strengthen cooperation, including economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency and emerging technologies.
One of the critical areas of shared interests is cooperation to eradicate transnational terrorist syndicates’ sanctuaries located in Afghanistan. Pakistan has cooperated in the arrest and extradition of a wanted Islamic State–Khorasan Province (IS-KP) terrorist. President Trump acknowledged Pakistani cooperation during his first address to Congress. Thus, both states need to augment their cooperation on counterterrorism and security cooperation designed to pressure the Afghan Taliban to end safe hideouts of IS-KP and remnants of Al-Qaeda, which are providing funding and training to Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan. The Trump Administration’s mediation in establishing a ceasefire on May 10, 2025, testifies to the US’s decisive role in maintaining strategic stability in South Asia and preventing a nuclear war on the subcontinent. Of course, peace in the nuclearized region is in the interest of everyone; therefore, constructive engagement between Pakistan and the US is imperative.
Pakistan is in dire need of foreign direct investment for its economic growth and development. Therefore, the Government of Pakistan must engage with the Americans and encourage them to invest in various Pakistani sectors, including mining and mineral resources. Notably, Islamabad hosted a Mineral Investment Forum in April 2025, where it promoted opportunities for American firms to invest in its estimated USD 6 trillion worth of untapped mineral reserves, offering favorable concessions and attractive profit margins.’
To conclude, Pakistan must enhance its politico-economic and security relations with the United States, fostering a mutual strategic benefit, without compromising its strategic cooperation with China. Thus, Pakistan’s diplomatic balancing engagement with the great powers is imperative for maximizing its national security.
—The writer is Prof at the School of Politics and IR, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
