ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has increased its engagement with the US, gaining renewed visibility in Washington through a series of diplomatic and economic initiatives, it’s the crux of report published by the News York Times.
At President Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington last month, his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, unveiled a promising new partnership with Pakistan. It was an unorthodox real estate deal involving a shuttered hotel in Midtown Manhattan, says the report.
While the Trump administration has not made the terms of the deal public, a White House official briefed on the matter described it as a potentially lucrative partnership between the two governments to co-own the property. It was the latest bond that Pakistan forged with the Trump administration, part of a broader strategy of engaging the president and his inner circle.
According to the newspaper, a lobbying campaign, while not initially tied to Donald Trump’s war in Iran, elevated Pakistan’s standing in Washington in the lead-up to the conflict. And Pakistan, which shares a 565-mile border with Iran, is now playing a potentially central role in the halting effort to bring about a ceasefire and a peace deal.
The newspaper says that a month before Pakistan’s finance minister sealed the hotel deal there, he signed an agreement to work with an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, the crypto start-up founded by the Trump and Witkoff families.
The White House, however, denied any link between Witkoff’s Roosevelt Hotel deal and either his family’s crypto firm or his talks with Iran.
“This is a deal that could only be negotiated by someone with the talent and expertise of Special Envoy Witkoff,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said of the hotel deal, adding that it came “at no cost to the American taxpayer.” She said that Pakistan “has been an important partner” on a range of issues, including counterterrorism.
In June, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir had a private lunch in the Oval Office with President Trump, developing a personal relationship that helped improve ties between the two administrations. They discussed economic development, according to the Pakistani government. Pakistan also nominated Trump for the Nobel Prize.
More than two decades after the relationship was shaped by the war in Afghanistan, the recent initiatives mark a renewed phase of engagement. Through economic proposals, diplomatic outreach and regional facilitation, Pakistan has strengthened its standing and re-emerged as an active participant in discussions involving the US and the region.
