Imran Khan at the White House

Background

The turn in relations began in December 2018, when Trump wrote to Imran Khan, prime minister since August, asking for Pakistan's help in reaching a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan and in supporting the work of the US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad; the letter acknowledged that the war had cost both countries³. Pakistan had already released the senior Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in October 2018, a step widely reported as made at US request, and it helped bring Taliban negotiators to talks in Doha⁷.

What happened

Khan was received in the Oval Office on 22 July 2019, his first visit to Washington as prime minister. Before the meeting Trump told reporters that they would discuss the military, terrorism and especially trade, which he said was far below its potential, and he praised Pakistan's help on Afghanistan^1,4. Trump also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir; Khan welcomed an American role, but India's foreign ministry said no such request had been made². Pakistan's official account emphasised a broad-based, long-term partnership, Afghanistan and trade⁴.

Khan was accompanied by the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and the head of the ISI, reflecting the importance of security cooperation to the visit.

Why it mattered

The meeting reset the tone of a relationship that had been publicly hostile since the August 2017 strategy speech and the January 2018 aid suspension. It reflected the administration's new priority: a deal with the Taliban⁶. Two weeks later, India's revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status overtook the mediation discussion; Washington declined to take sides publicly beyond urging restraint.

Legacy

In December 2019 the State Department announced that Pakistan's participation in the IMET military training programme would resume⁵. Trump and Khan met again in New York in September 2019 and at Davos in January 2020. Security assistance itself was not restored.