Washington: Donald Trump is expected to visit Pakistan in September, marking the first visit by a sitting U.S. President to the country in two decades. Following his stopover in Islamabad, there is also speculation that Trump may travel to India, according to reports from Reuters citing local sources.
Pakistan’s foreign office, however, has denied any knowledge of the planned visit. If it occurs, Trump’s trip to Pakistan would be the first presidential visit since George W. Bush in 2006.
This news comes after Trump hosted Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir at the White House.
Trump has claimed multiple times that he took steps to broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during their four-day military standoff in May. The tensions escalated after the attack in Pahalgam on April 22, which led India to carry out military strikes against terrorist bases in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan, and Pakistan responded with attacks on Indian airbases.
A ceasefire was announced on May 10, and Trump has asserted that he personally brokered this understanding, a claim that India has rejected. Earlier this month, Trump also claimed he had “stopped a lot of fights,” including the India-Pakistan conflict, suggesting it could have escalated to a nuclear level. He stated, “We stopped a lot of fights… I think a very big one frankly… India and Pakistan, and we stopped that over trade. We are dealing with India; we are dealing with Pakistan.”
The Indian government, however, has maintained that the ceasefire was achieved through direct bilateral negotiations between the military leaders of both countries.