Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Friday that the United States and Pakistan are close to a trade agreement that might be reached within days, but there was no time noted in comments made by the United States after Dar attended a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
I think we are quite near to giving our conclusion on a deal with US Our teams have been here in Washington, they have been discussing and virtually meeting with US, and there has been a committee to fine tune as assigned by the prime minister now, Dar told in a discussion at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
It is not going to be months or weeks, I would say, in days, he said.
With the US President Donald Trump, Washington has tried to renegotiate trade agreements with most countries that it threatened to give tariffs over what it termed as unfair trade relations. Numerous economists challenge such designation made by Trump.
In a separate after-meeting statement, the US State Department and Pakistani foreign ministry said the two emphasized during the meeting the significance to broaden trade and cooperation on critical minerals and mining. Rubio X post announcing the completion of the meeting and the statement of the State Department did not specify any time frame within which a trade agreement would be made.
Pakistan foreign ministry also claimed that Dar was thankful to Trump and Rubio who helped de-escalate Pakistan India tensions “through brokering a ceasefire.” India was not referred to in the State Department statement.
Trump has been claiming to take credit over the India-Pakistan ceasefire that he announced on social media on May 10, and Washington brokered the ceasefire between the two sides. India refutes the arguments of Trump that it was because of his intervention and threats on trade that the ceasefire took place.
The situation of India is that New Delhi and Islamabad have to work out issues among themselves without external interventions.
In the most recent flaring-up of the decades-lengthy dispute, an April 22 assault by aggressors in Indian-controlled Kashmir murdered 26 men and initiated intense warfare between the nuclear-powered Asian neighbors. India attacked Pakistan on May 7 and the two rivals were exchanging fire in killing dozens over the three consecutive days. May 10 saw the declaration of the ceasefire.
The April attack was blamed by New Delhi on Pakistan, which denied having done it and demanded a neutral investigation. Washington criticized the assault without accusing the Islamabad.
