Donald Trump Applauds Pakistan Army Chief

As US President Donald Trump took a victory lap in front of world leaders following the Gaza ceasefire a few weeks ago, he gave a shout-out to Pakistan’s Army Chief, calling him his “favorite field marshal.”

Donald Trump then relinquished the podium to allow Pakistan’s civilian leader, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to deliver to the cameras his own praise of Trump’s ceasefire efforts. Sharif announced that same day he intended to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize – again.

A year ago, such scenes would have been unthinkable, reports CNN.

Washington DC had long kept Pakistan at arm’s length, over its chronic political instability and alleged ties to US-sanctioned Islamist terror groups. The fact it’s one of China’s closest allies didn’t help either.

Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden never even called either of the two Pakistani prime ministers who served during his term. After the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, he enraged neighboring Pakistan by calling it “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.”

But Trump 2.0 has shaken the mixer of US diplomacy, upending friendships and bringing foes into the fold of his presidency – if they have something to offer.

And so far, Pakistan has delivered a masterclass in how to respond.

Its leaders have been regular guests at the White House and have escaped the tongue-lashings dished out to other heads of state; its military is awaiting a new shipment of US-made Raytheon missiles; and its diplomats have negotiated tariffs a good deal smaller than those imposed on neighbor and arch-rival India.

It seems to have accomplished this through a promise of preferential access to critical rare earths not controlled by China and judicious flattery of Trump.

So far Pakistan’s diplomatic game is raising cheers back home. It’s also enraging India, which has been left out in the cold and hit with huge tariffs for its continued purchases of cheap Russian oil.


Rifat Rafique Badhan is a
freelancer and a columnist.