Trump Meeting With Pak General Asim Munir Outcome of 'Unorthodox Efforts', Not Routine Diplomatic Channels: Report

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has said that he was “honoured” to meet Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for talks at the White House on Wednesday (June 18), The Dawn has reported. 

The newspaper cites insiders to report “that the meeting was not arranged through routine diplomatic channels, but was the outcome of “unorthodox efforts” by a group of advisers, businessmen, and other influential figures.” 

Sources told the newspaper that “deepened counter-terrorism cooperation, engagement with crypto-linked influence networks, and targeted lobbying via Republican-aligned firms in Washington helped Pakistan secure the meeting.”

Diplomatic sources in Washington told The Dawn that this initiative had been cooking for months and kept under wraps until the White House released President Trump’s official schedule on Tuesday. Senior aides from both, US and Pakistan were in attendance.

The newspaper says that Munir, appointed Field Marshal last month, has “now become the first serving chief of army staff to have a face-to-face meeting with a sitting US president. The occasion also marked the first time a serving Pakistani army chief had been formally received at this level, without holding political office or governing under martial law.”

Asked whether the talks included the current Iran-Israel conflict, Trump said, “They [Pakistan] know Iran very well, better than most, and they’re not happy about anything. It’s not that they’re bad with Israel. They know them both, actually, but they know Iran better."

“He [Munir] agreed with me. The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India]. And I want to thank PM Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We’re working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan. These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump was hosting Field Marshal Munir after he called for the president to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, Reuters reported.

South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said, “There’s been US-Pak engagement on critical minerals, crypto, [and] CT. Trump takes a deep personal interest in all of these. And Munir is empowered to talk about it all. Also, Kashmir.”

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