THE US President hosted the Pakistan Army Chief at lunch in the White House in Washington DC and this was for the first time that the US President has invited a military chief from Pakistan who is not the head of state like General Ayub, General Zia or General Musharraf.
After this there was a flurry of actions in the diplomatic arena including the visit of our Foreign Minister and his meeting with the American Secretary of State and other political big shots. This is definitely a thaw in the dormant relations of the past few years and a dramatic improvement in relations that have been a roller coaster ride during the past seven decades. The new trade deal with the US is definitely a positive development with Pakistan having to pay only 19% tariff which means a preferential treatment as compared to India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Both the countries have welcomed this new deal with an announcement by Donald Trump that the US will render all possible help to Pakistan to explore, tap and develop its vast untapped oil reserves. “We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this Partnership,” Trump announced on social media. The Ministry of Finance in Islamabad hailed the deal because this means the beginning of a new era of economic cooperation and collaboration in the fields of energy and minerals mining, IT, crypto currency and many other areas. This new trade deal with the USA will give a giant boost to market access, bilateral trade and direct foreign investment. The Finance Minister said: “From our perspective, it was always going beyond the immediate trade imperative. The whole point of this is that trade and investment have to go hand in hand.”
The announcement came a day after Mr. Trump slapped 25pc tariffs on imports from India to punish it for its Russian oil purchases. Therefore, the ‘symbolism’ of the pact is likely to matter more than the sketchy specifics of the agreement — especially the tariff reductions which Islamabad claims to have secured. This new development is definitely a new beginning for the leadership of both countries to focus greatly on trade and strategic partnership and will send a very positive signal to American investors who have been rather reluctant to invest in Pakistan because of the frigid relations between the two countries during the past many years. Pakistan’s civil and military leadership have gone out of their way in the way they have boosted the Trump ego by nominating him for the Nobel Peace
Prize and the results are apparent in the new and recent tilt of Donald Trump towards Pakistan at the risk of annoying India one can only hope and pray that the final results of this policy are not short lived and will now be translated into benefits of a long-term policy. With the hasty withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan in 2021, relations between the two countries once again took a nose dive and it was like the post 9/11 scenario when the American planners were again debating whether to place Pakistan in the friendly nation list or the list of foes. Pakistan was blamed of playing a double game in Afghanistan and during the Joe Biden presidency relations were at rock bottom. After the Afghanistan war the geopolitical scene changed dramatically like the renewed China Pakistan alliance and the strategic alliance between India and the US. The increased tensions between Beijing and Washington and Pakistan cozying up more to China played a major role in the new emerging relationship between Pakistan and the USA.
Very soon after the Trump second term in the White house Donald Trump was profuse in praising and thanking Pakistan for capturing the mastermind of the Kabul attack in 2021that resulted in the death of many American servicemen. The capture of a top leader of the Islamic State by Pakistan was a clear signal that despite the freeze in relations Pakistan was cooperating fully in the war on terror and Pakistan’s role in counter terrorism was one major factor in improving relations with the USA. Centcom chief Gen Michael E Kurilla detailed how such cooperation had led to the capture of the terrorist. “They [Pakistan] are in an active counterterrorism fight right now, and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world,” Kurilla said in his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington. During the May 2025 India-Pakistan armed clash, Donald Trump played a constructive role by helping secure a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed countries. This action by the US President became a significant factor in improving relations and bringing America and Pakistan closer. Donald Trump has claimed that it was his intervention that prevented a nuclear war acclaim that has been denied strongly by India which continues to insist on bilateral relations with Pakistan without any third party role.
Throughout history, the Pak-US relations have been rather erratic based on short-term security interests or common challenges but now winds of change are blowing strong. The American interest in Pakistan’s deposits of rare earth and mineral wealth is a new development in this regard and now many American companies have shown tremendous interest in the minerals mining sector in Pakistan. Almost all the mineral wealth of Pakistan is located in Baluchistan and security risks in the province makes it very difficult to attract any foreign investment. Islamabad and Washington DC are now in a proactive diplomacy reminiscent of the decade of the fifties and now this new phase will most certainly cement bilateralism and cooperation in security, defense trade and investments. Two recent visits by the COAS to the USA testify to the renewal of relations between the two countries, particularly in economic and defense cooperation.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad
