Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar is all set to travel to the United States where he will attend the UNSC debate under China’s presidency.
His US visit is set to begin from the 25th of May, diplomatic source said, adding that he will travel to the United States, from China, directly.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to China later this month, which is set to be held from the 23rd of May till the 25th of May, is increasingly being viewed in Islamabad as part of a wider diplomatic push aimed at positioning Pakistan at the center of evolving regional and global conversations on security, mediation and multilateralism.
Dar will accompany the prime minister during the visit, which comes as Beijing assumes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for May and prepares to host a high-level UNSC open debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and Strengthening the UN-centered International System.”
Dar is expected to hold sideline interactions in New York with the UN Secretary General, the Foreign Ministers of Czech Republic and Thailand among others.
He is also expected to travel to Washington from New York for a series of meetings. It is immediately unclear that whether he will be holding a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, or not.
The sequencing of the visits is something which will be closely watched, particularly against the backdrop of Pakistan’s recent diplomatic outreach involving both Iran and the United States. Islamabad has in recent months repeatedly called for dialogue and restraint as tensions between Washington and Tehran fluctuate, while Pakistani officials have maintained contacts with multiple regional capitals in support of diplomatic off-ramps.
Officials familiar with the preparations say the Sharif-Xi meeting is expected to cover traditional bilateral priorities including economic cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, regional connectivity, security cooperation and Afghanistan, but will also likely focus on broader geopolitical instability stretching from the Middle East to South Asia.
The visit also comes at a time when Pakistan is seeking to project itself as a stabilizing middle power actor capable of engaging multiple sides simultaneously, maintaining close strategic ties with China while preserving working relations with Washington and Gulf capitals.