Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will have an opportunity to talk to US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week.
The prime minister is among the world leaders attending the UNGA meeting who have been invited by President Biden to a reception in New York, a Foreign Office official told on request of anonymity.
The official said that the prime minister will not have a bilateral meeting with Biden but will hold informal talks with the US president during the reception.
This will be the first meeting between the US President and the Pakistani Prime Minister. Since being elected US President, Biden has not spoken to former Prime Minister Imran Khan or his successor Shahbaz Sharif.
But he will finally meet Shahbaz this week in New York.
The meeting, though informal, will be significant given the fact that Pakistan was largely ignored by the Biden administration during Imran’s regime.
But since the change of government, there has been a series of engagements between the two countries. A senior adviser to the US Secretary of State recently visited Pakistan while the Biden administration also approved the $450 million sale of F-16 equipment to Pakistan.
After the UNGA meeting, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will go to Washington on an official visit and will meet Secretary of State Anthony Blanken.
This will be his second meeting with the Secretary of State in a few months as he had earlier met him on the sidelines of the Food Security Summit in New York.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz is expected to meet the French president in New York this week, the first bilateral meeting between Pakistani and French leaders in seven years.
Official sources said that Shahbaz Sharif is going to meet many world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
After attending Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in London, Shahbaz Sharif is now going to New York.
The meeting with the French President will be important in view of the fact that relations between Islamabad and Paris have been strained for the past few years.
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the French president wanted to speak to the then Prime Minister Imran Khan to thank Pakistan for his help in the evacuation effort, but the PTI chairman refused to allow time for the call. Macron never contacted Imran again.
France is an important country of the European Union and has close relations with India. A Pakistani diplomat serving in Paris. Pakistan had little or no involvement in the Western country because of the poor outlook of the country.
A possible meeting between the Prime Minister and the French President could break the ice in the relationship.
France is not only a key member of the European Union, but also a key player in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is set to decide Pakistan’s fate in Paris in October.
FATF’s on-site team visited Pakistan earlier this month to verify the steps taken by the country to implement the financial watchdog’s plan.
A successful outcome of this tour will pave the way for Pakistan to get out of the gray list.
