LONDON: US President Donald Trump’s luncheon meeting with Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir at the White House, followed by a visit to the Oval Office, has caused an earthquake both inside and outside of Pakistan for its timing, significance and the intensity for several reasons.
Field Marshal Asim Munir’s meeting with Donald Trump and his entire cabinet, scheduled for an hour bust lasting over two hours, is seen as extraordinary, historic and rare.
Several individuals worked behind the scenes to organise this meeting, boosting relations between the two important countries – with a huge impact on the region, global significance and Pakistan’s internal politics with regards to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) at home and abroad. This correspondent spoke to three credible sources who are familiar with the background developments.
The work on the meeting started nearly 3 weeks ago when a senior intelligence Major General rank officer arrived in Washington and held meetings with senior and important officials in the Trump administration, a source confirmed. The grounds for meetings were set with the Major General’s meetings but the actual meeting would not have been possible without the decisive intervention of Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s US Middle East Envoy and his staunch ally, who was present during the Field Marshal’s meeting with President Trump. Others in the exclusive meeting were Secretary of State Senator Marco Rubio and Pakistan’s National Security Advisor General Asim Malik.
Knowledgeable sources said that US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff was requested for the meeting by a credible Middle Eastern-based Pakistani businessman who has closer ties to Witkoff as well as with Middle Eastern royal families. There were several back and forth calls and presentations before the meeting between the two powerful figures was finalised, said the source who had shared in advance with this reporter that the meeting would happen. This was at least 36 hours before the meeting was announced on Wednesday.
The Pakistani army intelligence officer took several trips to Washington DC where he met the US officials and members of Pakistani diaspora considered close to the Trump administration. The purpose of these meetings was not just the Field Marsha’s visit but also to deal with the campaigns run by supporters of former PM Imran Khan with help from a group of US Senators.
Field Marshal Asim Munir was in UAE before travelling to the US on invitation of the Centcom. According to the previous schedule he was to attend meetings with the Centcom and Pentagon officials but the whole programme was rescheduled just a few hours before General Asim Munir landed in Washington and met President Trump on the third day of his visit in an unprecedented display of backdoor diplomacy.
The US-Pakistan closeness didn’t happen overnight. The relations were full of awkward anticipation and the fear of the unknown only a few months before Donlad Trump was elected with a thumping win. There were fears that he would call for the release of Imran Khan and may go an extra mile intervening in Pakistan affairs but the opposite happened – to the pleasure of the powers that be in Pakistan.
On January 15, 2025, this correspondent had reported exclusively that a Texas hedge fund manager and a business partner of the Trump family has praised Pakistan’s sacrifices in the war against terrorism, advising President-elect Donald Trump to make Pakistan-American relations stronger than before.
Two weeks later, he was in Islamabad meeting Pakistani leaders including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and said that President Donald Trump’s aide Richard Grenell “may have been misled” over his support for the release of PTI founder chairman Imran Khan’s campaign by a lobby working in the United States.
This was followed by close meetings between the officials and informal lobbyists of the two countries, bringing them closer over the crypto currency as well as the rare minerals in Pakistan and the wider trade cooperation.
The next clear sign of growing ties came when India attacked Pakistan and President Trump clearly stayed neutral and called on both countries to step back, winning praise from millions of Pakistanis and getting attacked by PM Modi’s govt and his support base.
The source said that COAS Asim Munir and Trump’s teams discussed forging a strategic alliance around minerals, crypto partnership, oil and gas exploration, mining opportunities, data centres, bitcoin mining, real estate development and exports improvements for Pakistan.
He said: “Pakistan has revamped its Foreign policy. It’s a new era for Pakistan. This is new economic diplomacy. The relations are geared towards economic cooperation with each other.”
The meeting is seen as an unprecedented development as no previous Chief of Army Staff in Pakistan’s history has ever held a meeting of this magnitude with a sitting US President at the White House. This historic engagement marks a defining moment in the history of Pakistan–U.S. relations and reflects a new level of recognition of Pakistan’s military leadership on the global stage.
Previously, General Pervez Musharraf met US Presidents during his tenure but as President of Pakistan, not as Army Chief; General Raheel Sharif (2015) and General Qamar Javed Bajwa (2022) visited Washington for defense-focused engagements but did not meet with the US President at the White House, nor in the presence of the full Cabinet, and certainly not in a solo diplomatic capacity.
Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir is the first military leader in Pakistan’s history to meet the US President at the White House in this capacity. No civilian government delegation accompanied him, making this a uniquely solo military-level engagement. The engagement included a formal lunch with President Trump and meetings with members of the US Cabinet, reflecting the seriousness of the dialogue and the depth of bilateral strategic alignment. While previous Pakistan Army Chiefs have visited Washington for military-to-military engagements, none have ever held such a high-level political meeting at the White House, particularly without a parallel civilian government presence.
At the Cabinet Room meeting, Trump showered praise on Field Marshal Asim Munir and called him a visionary leader and a friend, said the source. Trump thanked Asim Munir for helping the US and allies counterterrorism.
After the meeting, Trump said he was honoured to meet Asim Munir and that they had discussed Iran, which he said Pakistan knew better than most. Trump told reporters he had thanked Asim Munir for ending the war with India, for which he also praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Two very smart people decided not to keep going with that war; that could have been a nuclear war,” Trump told reporters.
