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View all search resultsPakistan-US ties: A new chapter for an old friendship
Both countries will benefit from a more meaningful, multidimensional and consistent relationship built on a historical foundation and oriented toward a forward-looking framework, as will the wider region and the world.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raises a hand on Sept. 22, 2026, as he arrives at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the United States, to attend the first day of the high-level general debate during the 81st UN General Assembly. (AFP/Charly Triballeau)
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akistan-United States ties may have witnessed many vicissitudes over the years. But where some saw a bleak future, primarily because they wished it so, a new hope has emerged for a more consistent, balanced and mutually beneficial partnership set on a solid foundation of common aspirations and shared perceptions.
The forthcoming talks planned between Pakistani and US leadership on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly offer both sides a wondrous opportunity to reenvision bilateral ties in a broader spectrum of cooperation: more meaningful, multidimensional and consistent.
Given the expanding scope of engagement between the two countries in recent times, there is now both an opportunity and a compelling rationale to orient the relationship toward a more forward-looking framework, one attuned to the new era in which fast-moving technological, economic and geopolitical shifts carry profound implications.
This calls for a reinvigorated partnership unbound by the exigencies of the moment and grounded instead in the enduring aspirations and interests of both nations.
Washington has long recognized that Pakistan matters in its own right by virtue of its demography, diplomacy, geography and strategic weight. Its location, at the confluence of South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and the Arabian Sea, gives it intrinsic relevance to regional and global connectivity, trade and security.
A population exceeding 250 million makes it one of the world’s largest potential markets and a vast reservoir of human capital, while its geography offers a natural bridge to the resource-rich economies of Central Asia, to say nothing of Pakistan’s own substantial, still under-explored resource endowments.
Its diplomatic reach has been on full display this year as Islamabad worked to bring stability to the wider region, most notably through its widely noted mediatory role during the recent US-Israeli-Iran conflict.
