A quiet diplomatic milestone

A lot has happened in the past fortnight or so as far as Pakistan is concerned, especially with regard to its ties with the US.

Perhaps, one of the biggest and defining moments in US-Pakistan ties was the lunch meeting between Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and US President Donald Trump. And then there was the 12-day conflict of daily missile attacks and bombings on each other’s territory by Iran and Israel, culminating in a ceasefire on June 24.

A lot has already been said and discussed and debated about the meeting, which was closed to the US media. Neither the US government, nor the White House issued any statement or readout of the meeting – which is said to have lasted two hours. Pakistan military’s press/media service ISPR did release a statement on what was discussed at the meeting and President Trump referred to it during one of his daily impromptu talks with US reporters.

The US president said that the primary reason for inviting the Pakistan army chief was to thank him for not going into a war with India and agreeing to a ceasefire. When asked, he also said that there had been discussion in the Iran-Israel conflict, not least because Pakistan and Iran and neighbours, and (as Trump himself said), Pakistan knows Iran better than most countries do.

All kinds of conspiracy theories followed this lunch meeting, and as expected, the most insidious and malicious of these were usually floated on social media by either Indian handles or those aligned