��������

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir met US President Donald J. Trump at the White House on Thursday in a high-level engagement aimed at resetting relations between the two countries and expanding cooperation on security, trade and regional peace.

The Oval Office talks marked Sharif’s first meeting with Trump since the latter’s return to power earlier this year and the first joint appearance by Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership before a US president in years. The meeting followed a precedent-setting White House lunch between Trump and Field Marshal Munir earlier this year — conducted without civilian officials present — and which came amid shifting geopolitical dynamics, including Washington’s increasingly strained ties with New Delhi.

By pairing civilian and military leadership in the same room with the US president, Pakistan is widely seen to be signaling a more coordinated foreign policy posture aimed at strengthening its influence in wider Middle Eastern and Asian security discussions.

During what the Pakistani prime minister’s office described as a “warm and cordial” meeting, Sharif said he was confident the talks would usher in a new phase in bilateral relations.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Pakistan-US partnership will be further strengthened to the mutual benefit of both countries,” Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office after the meeting.

Sharif and Munir arrived at the White House shortly before 5p.m. on Thursday as Trump was signing executive orders and talking with reporters. The meeting between the two leaders was closed to the media, with Pakistan’s delegation leaving the White House at 6:18 p.m.

Ties have improved between the US and Pakistan as Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of the Republican president’s closest with a world leader during his first term, has become strained over India’s increased purchases of discounted Russian oil after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. India and Pakistan are neighbors and fierce rivals.

Trump has dramatically raised tariffs on India for those oil purchases in an effort to put indirect economic pressure on Moscow.

Meanwhile, the US and Pakistan reached a landmark trade agreement in July that is expected to allow Washington to help develop Pakistan’s largely untapped oil reserves and lower tariffs for Islamabad.

During Thursday’s meeting, Sharif invited American firms to invest in Pakistan’s agriculture, IT, minerals and energy sectors.

He also praised Trump as a “man of peace” whose “bold, courageous and decisive leadership” helped facilitate a ceasefire between Pakistan and India in May, averting what Islamabad said could have been a “major catastrophe in South Asia.”

The truce, brokered with US involvement, followed a four-day war in which the two nuclear-armed neighbors shared artillery, missile and drone strikes.

Security and counterterrorism cooperation featured prominently in the talks, with Sharif thanking Trump for his public endorsement of Pakistan’s counterterrorism role and calling for expanded intelligence collaboration.

Sharif has gained favor with Trump since publicly endorsing the American leader for a Nobel Peace Prize over his role in brokering the ceasefire with India. Unlike Sharif, Modi has declined to indulge Trump’s attempt to claim credit for arranging the truce.

Pakistan did split with Trump on his decision to carry out US strikes in June on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

Pakistan said the attack “constituted a serious violation of international law” as well as on the stature of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

• with inputs from AP

MANILA: Another tropical storm barreled across Philippine islands Friday, causing at least four deaths and new evacuations of tens of thousands of people from landslide- and flood-prone villages long battered by typhoons.
Bualoi, which has weakened since making landfall overnight, was the latest of back-to-back storms from the Pacific to threaten Asia. Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest to hit in years, caused at least 25 deaths in the northern Philippines and Taiwan, mostly from flooding, before making landfall in China and dissipating over Vietnam.
Bualoi made landfall in the Philippine town of San Policarpo in Eastern Samar province late Thursday with sustained winds of 110kph, knocking out power in towns and villages and setting off flooding and two minor landslides, the country’s disaster-mitigation agency said in a news conference.
More than 73,000 people from Eastern Samar and Northern Samar provinces went to government emergency shelters as the storm approached, provincial officials said.
The four deaths were in the central island province of Masbate. Three were hit separately by a falling tree, a collapsed wall and falling debris and a fourth was hit by lightning Thursday night, officials said.
“We need clearing operations because most of our road networks are not really passable for food and health assistance to pass,” Masbate Gov. Ricardo Kho said in a news conference. “We also need help to have our ports reopened as early as possible for us to receive help from different provinces.”
Bualoi, locally named Opong, was the 15th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year.
The fast-moving storm, which has a rain and wind band of about 450 kilometers from its center, was blowing northwest and could blow over densely populated coastal provinces south of the capital, Manila, later Friday before entering the South China Sea. It could restrengthen to a typhoon on a course toward Vietnam, Philippine forecaster said.
The latest storm hit at a sensitive time in the Philippines. Multiple investigations have implicated multiple lawmakers, including allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in a corruption scandal involving flood control and related infrastructure projects. Allegations of massive kickbacks that have financed lavish lifestyles of those involved have sparked public outrage and protests in a Southeast Asian country prone to deadly floodings and typhoons.