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No. 83 of 103The Long ArcRecalibration

DiplomacyRecalibration

Nawaz Sharif returns to the White House

After Pakistan’s first transfer of power between elected governments, Prime Minister Sharif met President Obama and pressed him to end drone strikes.

The Long Arc · CUPA1 min read

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in the Oval Office at their bilateral meeting, 23 October 2013
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in the Oval Office at their bilateral meeting, 23 October 2013
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in the Oval Office at their bilateral meeting, 23 October 2013
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in the Oval Office at their bilateral meeting, 23 October 2013

Background

Pakistan's May 2013 elections produced the country's first transition from one elected government that had completed its term to another. Nawaz Sharif's PML-N won, and Sharif - who had last visited the White House as prime minister in the 1990s - set out to repair relations and attract investment. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Islamabad on 1 August 2013 and, with Sharif's foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz, announced the resumption of the Strategic Dialogue suspended in 20114.

What happened

Sharif's official visit ran from 20 to 23 October, with his meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office on 23 October1,2. Their joint statement affirmed a partnership built on mutual interest and respect; Obama congratulated Sharif on the historic democratic transition, and the two leaders discussed energy, trade, counter-terrorism and Afghanistan, including a call on the Taliban to enter dialogue with the Afghan government1,2,6. After the meeting Sharif told reporters he had raised drone strikes and urged that they end; Obama did not refer to drones in his public remarks3. Obama noted the heavy toll extremism had taken on Pakistan2.

Why it mattered

The visit marked the formal return to normal high-level relations after the crises of 2011. It showed Washington's support for Pakistan's democratic transition and restored a regular calendar of engagement: the Strategic Dialogue resumed at ministerial level in Washington on 27 January 2014, with Aziz and Kerry as co-chairs5. But the drone issue showed the limits of what a civilian government in Islamabad could deliver or obtain.

Legacy

Drone strikes declined sharply in the following years, although US officials did not attribute this to Pakistani requests. Sharif returned to the White House in October 2015.

Sources

  1. Joint Statement by President Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, The White House (Obama archives), 23 October 2013 · Primary document
  2. Pakistan’s Sharif, Obama talk of improved ties (VOA), GlobalSecurity.org, 23 October 2013 · Press
  3. Sharif urged Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan, he says, PRI (The World), 23 October 2013 · Press
  4. Kerry visits Sharif and resumes “strategic dialogue” with Pakistan, Foreign Policy, 1 August 2013 · Press
  5. Pakistan-U.S. Strategic Dialogue Ministerial Meeting, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, January 2014 · Official
  6. Joint Statement by President Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (Pakistani release), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, 23 October 2013 · Official

Next in The Long ArcA second Sharif visit and a pledge on Lashkar-e-Taiba

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