Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House struck a positive tone July 22 despite bilateral relations long beset by rancor and suspicion. Khan later thanked Trump on Twitter for his warm and gracious hospitality. Trump meanwhile offered to help mediate Pakistan and India's long-running dispute over Kashmir, a suggestion that Khan welcomed but New Delhi criticized. The cordial exchanges stand in sharp contrast to the jabs the two leaders traded on the social media platform in 2018, when Trump accused Islamabad of lies and deceit and Khan pointed to Washington's "failures" to win the war in Afghanistan.
As long as Pakistan cooperates and pushes the Afghan Taliban to cooperate with the United States, Islamabad's ties with Washington will improve. But any Pakistani support for the Afghan peace process will not come at the expense of Islamabad's ultimate aim of shaping a friendly government...
